Royal Regiment to receive 'Freedom of the City'

On Saturday March 10, the Royal Regiment of Scotland will be marching from Stirling Castle to Stirling Council’s Old Viewforth as part of their ‘Freedom of the City’ Parade. The regiment will be awarded the civic honour in recognition of their services and strong links to the Stirling area and will then be entitled to enter Stirling ‘with drums beating, Colours flying, and bayonets fixed’

Awarding the ‘Freedom of the city’ is an age-old tradition dating back to the laws of ancient Rome that made it a capital offence for Roman legions to enter the city in formation or with weapons without permission.

The parade will begin at Stirling castle at 11am led by a combined military brass and pipe band. They will then march down Broad Street and Baker Street before turning right and heading along Corn Exchange Road to the Albert Halls. At 11.15am The Military Band of the Royal Regiment of Scotland and the Pipes and Drums of the 7th Battalion (7 Scots) of the Regiment will be playing outside the Albert Halls and this will give people an opportunity to enjoy the music with the soldiers. Next, the parade will march along Dumbarton Road to Port Street and finally up to Old Viewforth.

The Royal Regiment of Scotland is the senior and only Scottish line infantry regiment of the British Army Infantry. It consists of five regular and two territorial battalions.

Provost Fergus Wood comments; “It will be a great day for the people of Stirling to come out and cheer on the Royal Regiment of Scotland, kitted out in their full regalia and marching through our historic city. We are very proud to be recommending that Stirling bestows this accolade on a regiment of such high esteem and with strong links to the area”