Cheap Vacation Scotland - Stirling - Self Catering Glasgow

Situated between the Ochil Hills and the Campsie Fells, the town of Stirling grew up around its castle, historically one of Scotland's most important fortresses. Below the castle, the old town is still protected by the original walls, built in the 16th century to keep Mary Queen of Scots safe from Henry VIII. The Church of the Holy Rude where the infant James VI was crowned in 1567 is still in use today on Castle Wynd. At the highest navigable point of the River Forth and holding a pass to the Highlands, Stirling occupied a key position in Scotland's struggles for independence. Seven battlefields can be seen from the castle; the Victorian 67metre high Wallace Monument at Abbey Craig recalls William Wallace's defeat of the English at Stirling Bridge in 1297. This foreshadowed Robert the Bruce's victory in 1314 against the English at Bannockburn. The film Braveheart was made in and around Stirling.

Not far from Stirling, is the Antonine Wall - a stone and turf fortification, built by the Romans across what is now the central belt of Scotland. It is also known sometimes as Graham's Dyke, this name is locally explained as a legend of a victorious assault on the defences by one Robert Graeme. Construction of the Antonine Wall began in 142, during the reign of Antoninus Pius, by Quintus Lollius Urbicus and was completed in 144. The wall stretches 60 kilometres (37 miles) from Old Kilpatrick in West Dunbartonshire on the Firth of Clyde to Bo'ness, Falkirk, on the Firth of Forth. The wall was intended to replace Hadrian's Wall 160 km (100 miles) to the south, as the frontier of Britannia, but while the Romans did establish temporary forts and camps north of the wall, they did not conquer the Caledonians, and the Antonine Wall suffered many attacks. The Romans called the land north of the wall Caledonia, though in some contexts the term may mean the area north of Hadrian's Wall.

The Antonine Wall was inferior to Hadrian's Wall in terms of scale and construction, but it was still an impressive achievement, considering that it was completed in only two years, at the northern edge of the Roman empire in what they perceived as a cold and hostile land. The wall was typically an earth bank, about four metres high, with a wide ditch on the north side, and a military way or road on the south. The Romans initially planned to build forts every six miles, but this was soon revised to every two miles, resulting in a total of 19 forts along the wall. The best preserved but also one of the smallest forts is Rough Castle Fort.

Wallace Monument

Robert the Bruce

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