Stirling

I took the 8am train out of Helmsdale again with the purpose of a day trip to Stirling. I changed trains in Inverness and again in Perth, to arrive in Stirling at 1:15pm. I feel I have adequately experienced and conquered the Scottish rail system. In Scotland everything closes at 5pm, so I didn't have a great deal of time to sightsee, and all on foot too. My first goal was Stirling castle, which is thankfully only a few minutes walk from the rail station.

A large group of buoyant Frenchmen who were obnoxiously loud and rather annoying entered the castle at the same time. It did not endear me to the French at all.

Stirling has a great view, but it was very cloudy and hard to get good pictures.

My impression of Stirling was that it is mostly reconstruction and very little origional building. The Castle is also currently under construction, so most of the rooms were empty and there were parts blocked off. Above is the Castle Chapel.

There was a modern art display of tapestry in one room.

The Great Hall would make an excellent dance hall. Can you imagine??

See the differences in stonework.

The guardhouse kitchen- that fireplace must have been fifteen feet across. Watch your step!



And for dinner we have plastic hog's head with an acrylic glaze! Oh boy. The great kitchen was the only room that had plastic figures and other museumish replicas.



There were all sorts of nooks and crannies.