Stirling Walking Tour
Come and see the Brooch of the nation, where the northern highlands are clasped with central Scotland and the lowlands. Our guides can help interpret the jewels that adorn this beautiful city, pointing out the highlights and explaining the history. Please note that this tour is an example, and our Guides can personalise each visit to suit your requirements.
Overall Duration
1.5 hours
View STGA Stirling Walking Tour in a larger map
BROAD STREET - Broad by medieval standards this street was once the heart of the Old Town where markets were held.
NORIE'S HOUSE - Dating from the 17th century, this Dutch insprired building first housed lawyer and Burgh Town Clerk, but now more famously houses the Scottish Tourist Guides Association.
TOLBOOTH - Also dating from 17th Century, this was where the Burgh Council would meet, where you would pay your dues, where the court house was situated. It recently re-opened in 2002 as Stirling’s venue for music & art.
CHURCH OF THE HOLY RUDE - 540 year old church which was the setting for King James VI (and 1st of England's) baptism. The stonework on the outside is pockmarked with bullet holes, fired by Government forces at Jacobite soliders camped there in 1745.
MAR’S WARK - The wonderful renaissance façade is all that remains of the town house built (but never completed) for the Earl of Mar. He became Regent of Scotland and it is suspected he was poisoned in 1572.
ARGYLL’S LODGING
Initially built as a modest house for Sir William Alexander in 1632, the building was extended into the finest surviving Renaissance mansion in Scotland by the Earl of Argyll in 1674.
THE GRAMMAR SCHOOL / THE PORTCULLIS HOTEL - This building dates back to 1788 and was originally a grammar school, and later a military store, before become the hotel it is today.
THE CASTLE - Home to generations of Scottish monarchs including, Mary Queen of Scots, and the Palace has been recently restored in its full glory to display the wealth and pageantry of the Stuart Monarchs.
THE OLD TOWN CEMETERY - Similar to the Necropolis in Glasgow – the Cemetery was designed as a place for Victorians to walk through and be uplifted and educated in the Protestant faith.
JOHN COWANE’S HOSPITAL
This hospital was built with money bequeathed by Stirling merchant and MP John Cowane and was intended as an almshouse for members of the Merchant Guild.
OLD TOWN JAIL - Built about 150 years ago to replace the notorious Tollbooth Gaol it later became a military prison.
THE YOUTH HOSTEL - Constructed behind the façade of the former EBENEZER ERSKINE CHURCH (1824 -26). This church came into being as a result of a dispute which eventually split the Presbyterian Church in Scotland in two.
OLD HIGH SCHOOL/ HIGHLAND HOTEL
Standing on the land which once housed a Grey Friars’ Monastery, this building dates back to the 1850s. The copper domed observatory, still in use, was a gift from Sir Henry Campbell Bannerman a former Prime Minister of Great Britain and MP for Stirling until 1908
DARNLEY’S COFFEE HOUSE - Darnley’s Coffee House, or more correctly Erskine of Gogar’s house, dates to the late 16th or early 17th century, so it is unlikely Mary Queen of Scot's second husband, Darnley, stayed in the actual building as the tradition states. However, the cafe now there boasts some rather tasty soup and sandwich lunches.