And few fought fiercer for freedom than William Wallace.
Which is why I didn’t baulk at retracing the Great Man’s footsteps when doing a recce of Stirling for Daddy’s Little Girl.
Battlefield history is perfectly placed for a return – after all where is there more expanse than a battlefield?
Unless, of course, you’re an English soldier stuck in a muddy burn (that’s a Scottish stream) a long way from Chipping Norton.
Stirling, if you’ve never been, is a mini-Edinburgh https://www.google.ie/amp/s/jimmurtytraveltraveltravel.com/2020/02/17/edinburgh-an-old-friend/amp/ with its own castle, a better monument, the Wallace as opposed to the gaudy Scott on Princes Street.
And, best of all, it’s where the Scottish nation was reborn on the fields of Bannockburn on June 24, 1314.
Which you’ll know from watching Braveheart.
When an army of 8,000 hairy-arsed, skirty-wearing Scots defeated 20,000 Englishmen.
Only Wallace wasn’t a 5ft 9ins Australian.
Otherwise he wouldn’t have been able to wield that great Claymore sword which put the fear of death up the enemy at Falkirk Bridge.
You want to come up and visit, Do.
I’d advise though to stay at the Portcullis https://www.theportcullishotel.com next to the Castle.
Rather than The King Robert https://www.kingroberthotel.co.uk, named after King Robert the Bruce), just off the battlefield… it looks more like a motel.
If you want a more authentic experience still I dare say that you can find a campsite and imagine yourself pitching tent just like those soldiers of old.
See https://www.stirlingcastle.scot/visit/, https://www.nts.org.uk/visit/places/bannockburn and www.visitscotland.com.
MEET YOU ON THE BATTLEFIELD
Fun adventure