Revealing a Lost Bastion and a Forgotten Gate!
How Stirling was defended!
Today’s blog is update on the results of our last excavation of the season…more on the the city walls
But before that can I remind you of the FNH Conference this year celebrating David 1 and 900 years of Stirling.
but back to the walls!
One of my obsessions in recent years has been Stirling Burgh Wall…famously the best preserved in Scotland of clear international significance and I’ve written about it all before.
Stirling in the Time of the Stuarts by Johannes Vosterman (1643-1699) courtesy of the Smith Museum and Art Galley compared with the John Laye Map (by Dominic Farrugia). The subject of today’s blog is to the far left of the 18th century plan. It not on the 17th century painting which raises the possibility its later!
The Lost Gate
The other week we returned to what is Stirling’s only surviving medieval gate, the wee vennel at Cowanes' which had survived unrecognised!
The gate is designed to make attack hard…you have to run up hill and then turn a sharp left. The wee passage between the cemetery and Cowanes would’ve been blocked by debris and the wee curve at the northern end helped to ensure it could not be shoved out. Cold clear deadly military logic.
A mid 19th century map of the gate and bastion from the National Map Library of Scotland.
As you know the gate was protected by a bastion carved into the living 200 million year old rock!
and on the side of Cowane’s is evidence for shots fired in anger from defenders into the backs of attackers…brutal.
Evidence of musket ball impacts on the side of Cowanes.
A deadly midnight raid.
We think we have a description of a raid on this gate in September 1648 when an attempted siege of Stirling Castle by the Earl of Argyll (rebelling against the Scottish parliament who was negotiating with Charles I) was broken up by troops led by Sir George Munro. A near contemporary account of the raid by George Wishart describes the following: ‘The gates were shut and guarded; but he managed to gain access through a park which Scottish kings had constructed near a pleasant orchard as a deer preserve. Here he found a small postern, but too narrow and low to admit him on horseback. Dismounting, therefore, this active, indefatigable officer broke down the gate and burst in. The rest of his men followed slowly, one by one, as they could scramble through the narrow wicket, and scarce six came up with him before he was engaged.’ While this might the Cowane’s gate we cannot be certain.
The Full Plan
We went back to site to do a couple of things…..the first was to fully expose the bastion to plan it and look for a floor…..
this we did and her is Dom Farrugia’s plan.
It looks like the entrance must have been on the bottom left, the north-east corner!
We also found a single musket ball……dropped by a desperate defender perhaps? And so for the first time since since Bonnie Prince Charlie and his Jacobite army knocked on our door the Cemetery Bastion is revealed.
And that second thing?
Ah yes I did say we were doing two thing. That lost gate must of course be the 17th century iteration of it. Its first recorded in 1592 before Cowane’s was built. So there must be something else here. So we looked at the wall again…
The cemetery wall looks like a repair, the stones are smaller and there lots of sandstone. So we dug on the other side. And yes its not the burgh wall its too thin but there is nearly 2m of made ground behind it….wow! And this is where I think the original gate must have been. When Cowane’s was built they extended the cemetery.
Of course if we dug there we must have also uncovered the watchhouse to deter grave robbers….and here it is!
Have a question? Get in contact!
So the next step is to return and see if we can find the edge of where the original cemetery was and thus the original gate! Which we hope to do next year. Remember all of this is only possible because of all your help and if you’d like to get tour spade dirty please let me know!
Conclusions….
In Stirling’s 900th year there are ever more secrets to be revealed and lots and lots of fun to be had exploring them!
and as a final treat to those that read to the end here’s a wee video!
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Thank you Murray. Stirling is so lucky to have you.🙏🙏🙏
Thank you Murray. Just so interesting.