Stirling

Before trekking off on my grand adventure I received a lot of advice from my family... namely one of these pieces of advice was that I had better go and see the William Wallace Monument. Boyt my brother and father love the movie Braveheart. Luckily, Buckley had planned a trip to Stirling which has a magnificent castle and the William Wallace Monument.

Stirling is only an hour train ride away and when we got there we all walked to the castle together. It had great views of the city. Stirling Castle is much cooler than Edinburgh's. It is the home of of King James V who was Mary Queen of Scots father. I thought that guided tour and plaques throughout the castle were informative without being too much. You could explore each different part of the castle on your own and did not have to follow a tour which I liked. The wooden carved heads were cool. Also the inner part of the castle was painted a bright peachy orange, which was typical of castles from that era. Natalie and I found creepy, dungeon chambers.

After that we all ended up at Nicky Tams pub which was sub par and it took forever to get our food. Then we all hopped a bus and headed over to the monument. The hike up and down is so pretty. We didn't pay to climb the top of the tower but you can go up there for free. There were people dressed in costumes who told stories about William Wallace. Quite exciting.