Hidden Stirling.....The Flight of Stirling’s Bronze Eagles
A stolen secret from the Old Town Cemetery
This week’s post is a wee extract from my latest book….Hidden Stirling: Outlawed, Unknown, Locked, Destroyed, Overlooked and Secret Gems from Scotland’s Smallest City, costs £14 and signed copies available directly from me! M.j.cookstirling35@gmail.com. Remember I make 10p per copy from Amazon and a few pound if you order direct from me!
But before that a reminder…of the Marches….24th and 31st May
May 24th 10:45 on the Castle Esplanade
The Birlawmen and their Marshals will be piped into the Castle to swear in the Chapel Royal. We will then March to Cowanes to toast the March Stone. This will also an innovation…the Clan Chiefs who we have summoned like Wallace and Bruce to help defend Stirling and our freedoms. If you want to join the official party in the chapel please email me m.j.cookstirling@gmail.com
At 12 I will be giving a free tour of two memorials of Stirling veterans of the American Wars of Independence in the 250th Anniversary of the start of the conflict. Including someone who met Flora MacDonald and someone who was threatened with summary execution by General Washington!
Secrets of the Cemetery: The Flight of Stirling’s Bronze Eagles
The complex of cemeteries between Stirling Castle and the Church of the Holy Rude is a wonderful place with vast panoramic views. The poet William Wordsworth said ‘we know of no sweeter cemetery in all of our wanderings than that of Stirling’. It drips with history and conflict. It witnessed Mary Queen of Scots’ celebration of the baptism of her son the future James VI, who would commission the King James Bible. As we’ve heard, Bonnie Prince Charlie tried and failed to capture the castle in its last ever siege during January 1746. In 1651 Cromwell’s troops had a fire fight between the stones. It has seen witch executions and grave robbing and the stones feature Celtic Crosses and Green Men.
The Valley Cemetery with the Pyramid in the background.
Looming above them all is one of Scotland’s largest pyramids. Known as the Star Pyramid, or Salem Rock, it was commissioned in 1863 by William Drummond, a wealthy evangelical Christian. William himself is buried in a prominent polished granite tomb to the side. The monument has bibles round its base and like the rest of the Valley Cemetery with its various statues, is a monument to the leaders and martyrs of the Church of Scotland, of people who fought and died for religious and political freedom. The intention was to provide not just a pleasant garden but something edifying for the working classes to aspire to: a great British Empire straddling the world, white and protestant. At the base of the Pyramid were two large bronze eagles sitting on top of globes, a favourite place for people to sit on. The cemetery fell into disrepair after the 1960s and was subject to repeated vandalism including inscriptions on grave stones (disgusting) and metal theft and at some point the eagles took flight and have never been seen since!
Raymond Dormer’s grandfather, Sid on the eagles in the 1930s and thanks to Raymond for providing the image!
Have a question? Get in contact!
And if your free why not pop out to the dig for a look!
We’ll be at Kippen this week digging Keir Hill of Dasher (a lovely wee Roman Iron Age fort reused in the Viking Age). The dig is full but come along for a nosy…park in the village and its at the eastern end of the village at Cuthbertson Cottage.
Thank you Murray. Other diary commitments so can't get along but hope it goes well and the weather holds.