From Wigtown, Scotland we took a series of buses and trains to Stirling, via Glasgow. We picked Stirling because the pictures looked pretty, it has a grand castle, and it is the jumping off point for lots of picturesque walks. The train ride there took us past lovely scenery.
Stirling is small and lovely. One doesn’t need a lot of time there to see the castle and town, but with more time, the outlying areas are certainly worth exploring.
We walked from the train station to our Air bnb, which was right at the base of the walk along the castle walls to the castle itself. A perfect location.
And so we walked. We walked around the hilly old town, stopping for coffee and cakes along the way. (Cakes are a reoccurring theme in these Scotland posts, but the cafes here all had the best flourless vegan and gluten free cafes, like orange & almond or pistachio & lemon.)
Stirling was very picturesque – particularly the Church of the Holy Rude (the present structure dating to the 1400s).
And my favourite was the wonderful cemetery around the church, which was beautiful and afforded views of the surrounding fields.
The castle itself, sort of the highlight, was certainly worth visiting but I didn’t love some of the revitalization that they have done, painting the walls or ceilings with bright crests and patterns that, even if they replicate the originals, seemed too new and Disney-esque. But walking the ramparts and looking around was very good.
I also took a walk out of Stirling across a river to Cambuskenneth and the remaining Abbey.
We liked Stirling, but a day + two nights was sufficient to see the sights and wander around a bit. We ended up not doing any big hikes, but I should mention that if one does want to do any good long walks or hikes, this website, Walk Highlands, has incredibly detailed walking routes, pictures, GPS coordinates, etc. I used it to do my walk to Cambuskenneth.
From Stirling we would return to Edinburgh, visit Dean Village, Glasgow, and Paisley.
