I'm Bruce Fummey. Have you ever wondered what's the best castle in Scotland?
The most visited castle in Scotland is Edinburgh, but today I'm going to tell you just a fraction of
the interesting things about the best castle to visit. If you're interested in the people, places
and events in Scottish history, then click the subscribe button at the bottom right of the screen.
In the meantime, let me tell you some stories. There are a whole host of reasons why Stirling Castle
is the best castle in Scotland; partly it's the sheer density of our history that happened
in and around it. From the esplanade here, you can look across to the Wallace Monument, because
it was at the River Forth crossing down there, that Wallace defeated Longshank's men
at the Battle of Stirling Bridge. It was when Edward Longshanks was besieging this castle
that Robert Bruce struck a deal with the Bishop of St Andrews,
over there at Cambuskenneth Abbey, a deal that made his resistance to Edward inevitable. It was to
relieve this castle, that Edward's son brought his English army, leading to the Battle of Bannockburn.
In the time of James the First, the Albany Stuarts lived within view of Doune Castle, just to the
north of here, and it was in this castle that they received their fatal reward for their duplicitous
actions. It was also here that the eighth Earl of Douglas met his fate; brutally murdered by James the Second.
James the fourth was born here, and it was after the Battle of Sauchieburn, just a stone's throw in that
direction, that James replaced the father that he defeated in that battle. It was here that James's
wife, Margaret Tudor, held out against Scottish nobles, in an attempt to keep custody of their son,
James the Fifth. It was here that his daughter, Mary, Queen of Scots, held the most fabulous event imaginable
to celebrate the christening of her son, James the Sixth, the First if you're English, and of course,
it was in the church over here, that James, the first truly British monarch was crowned.
After dispatching Charles the First, Oliver Cromwell's troops fired from that steeple, into the
castle here. Jacobites, in their turn, later fired on the castle. You see this castle has been the
location of key events in every period of Scottish history, but in this short video I want to focus
on the hundred year period, in which most of the current structure was built. There will be ghosts!
In some ways the walls of Stirling Castle are like the layers of an onion.
Each layer drawing tears of conflict. The exterior outer walls here were built under Queen Anne to
defend against Jacobite supporters of her nephew, and a step back in time and the French spur was
built to protect against Henry the Eighth in his attempts to consume Scotland in the infancy of
Mary, Queen of Scots, but let me show you just a little bit of why this castle is so special.
I'm now in front of James the Fourth's medieval main gates, but where are you?
I've had people tell me, that they sit and watch these videos with their partner, and a glass of wine.
Others have said that they use it to pass the time as they sit on the toilet each morning, others still
have said that they listen on car journeys, or when they're on the night shift, behave yourself!
Anyway it'd be really cool, if you give me a sense to tell me in the comment section,
where and how you're watching this video.
You just need to walk the ramparts, to see how Stirling Castle dominates the landscape roundabout;
northwest towards the Highland line down to the south where Robert the Bruce would do battle at
Bannockburn, and of course northeast to where Wallace stood in that crag on the other side
of the Forth, defying the English to cross Stirling Bridge. Not only that, not only could you see for
miles, but you could be seen for miles. Okay I accept that today you can barely see past the
mechanical digger at the side of me, but normally, okay occasionally especially, when the Great
Hall behind me, was painted in brightly coloured gold. Can you imagine how far and how brightly
it's shone on this hill from the time that it was built by James the Fourth at the turn of the 16th Century,
and it wasn't just the Great Hall. The walls behind me were the great façade built by James the Fourth.
They were also painted in gold, and at that time stood five stories high. People all around, would
have basked in the reflected sunlight from James's court. Now I make extra videos for some of the
folk who support the channel on Patreon, and I'm going to do a more in-depth tour for them,
and I'm going to point out some of the features here and inside. You can get those extra videos by
becoming a Whisky Patreon. Just click the white tab up there, otherwise let's go to the inner courtyard.
Now if you come to Stirling Castle, then you could spend a whole day here, but I'm only skimming the
surface in about 10 minutes. There's a whole host of places that we don't have time for, but standing
here is why I think this castle's so important. Now I told you that James the Fourth built the façade that we
saw in front, but he also built these accommodation buildings. Now obviously when I say he built it, he
was a pointer rather than a digger, but you know what I mean, but the other side of the courtyard
is the bigger issue. You see this is the Great Hall. As I suggested it was built for James the Fourth
in 1503. It would have been the largest secular building in Scotland at the time.
Like the golden frontage, visible for miles around, it was meant to impress. It was what Théoden's
Great Hall at Rohan was meant to be in Tolkien's fantasy. This was the height of medieval pomp,
but it was also medieval pomp's last hurrah, because the Renaissance had come.
Medieval great halls were so last century, so when James died at the Battle of Flodden,
his young son was from a new generation. In my video 'What They Never Say About Mary, Queen of
Scots', I explained how James the Fifth came to be married to Marie de Guise, and I'll leave a link at the end
to that video, you should definitely watch it. The point is that James the Fifth had made a bit of
dowry cash, and he wanted to impress a high status French wife, so he built her this
Renaissance palace. This is very different from that medieval great hall that his dad had built.
On the outside, it had ornate carvings, of Greco-Roman gods. On the inside there was
no great hall, but a series of six large rooms; three apartments for the King on one side, and
three for the Queen on the other. Now depending on your level of importance, trust or intimacy, you
might be received in the outer chamber, the privy chamber, or the monarch's bed chamber.
Each chamber progressively more impressive, each onion layer more powerful and piquant.
If you go inside, you'll see that they've left the King's apartments quite bare,
because James the Fifth also died young, leaving baby Mary, Queen of Scots inside, and a rapacious Henry the Eighth
banging on the door outside, hence that French spur that we mentioned earlier, hence little
Mary's sojourn in France. Now when she returned, she wasn't Mary s-t-e-w-a-r-t but s-t-u-a-r-t.
The Great Hall here at that time was still used, in fact it was the venue for the lavish
christening of Mary's son, who would be James the Sixth. Now there can be few of you that don't
know that James grew to maturity as a boy king, whilst his mother languished in English prisons,
and it was when he himself had a son, that the last building in this quadrangle was built. The
chapel here was built for the christening of James's son, Henry. Henry? That's right,
he named his first son after the father of the English queen he fully expected to succeed. Best be prepared, eh?
He ordered that the existing building be destroyed in preparation for the christening,
and within a few months, a new chapel should be built to the same dimensions as Solomon's Temple
in Jerusalem. Not this time a grand hall, not the ornate carvings of Renaissance deities,
no such idolatry! You see, since the time of his mother, Scotland had become Presbyterian.
So this chapel is appropriately modest, and is designed both inside and out to fit the times.
I think that's what I like most about standing here in the inner courtyard of Stirling Castle;
it's the fact that this courtyard tells a tale, and the very buildings that surround you. These walls
heard the story of three generations of Stuart monarchs, as they succeeded
James the Fourth, the great builder. We see Scotland from the end of medieval pomp under James the Fourth,
through the intricate and ornate Renaissance of James the Fifth and Marie de Guise,
who from her apartments in this palace, resisted the change to Presbyterianism, that brought the
simplicity of the building of James the Sixth, who would become James the First of England.
This courtyard is only part of what you can see at Stirling Castle, but it encapsulates a 100
year period of transformation for the Stuart family, and our nation, and if you listen in the
wider castle and surroundings you can hear the song of Scotland. That video about James
the Fifth, and 'What They Don't Tell You About Mary, Queen of Scots' is coming up on screen now.
Watch it. In the meantime, tha mi an dochas gum bith lath math leibh. Tiorridh an drasda.