Stirling's City Walls, The Best Preserved in Scotland: Part 2 results.

Last week’s post introduced Stirling’s walls and noted how little we understood them. This week will present the results of our dig but first and perhaps a quite surprising first….I have walked the walls and looked at them and also where possible went inside on top! Something that no one else thought to do…or perhaps more likely was imply unable to do.

Now am I going to pass over the later doorways through the wall, like this one which is often called the Hangman’s Entry, which apparently allowed a private access to the gallows at the Black Boy Fountain for the hangman so that he would not be jostled by the crowds……remember there was no tv.

Another change was the later truncation of the inner half of the wall to provide a viewing step which in some cases provided what looks an original 16th century firing step.

The interior of the possible bastion behind the Youth Hostel.

My current focus is on the details of the 16th century construction so for example this section which demonstrates that at least two sets of workers on the wall….and that they didn’t coordinate as well as they might!

Perhaps the most interesting element are the one set of surviving stairs on the wall, which lie behind the Central Library on Corn Exchange Road. These are interesting as the Burgh’s records indicate that there may have a timber framework behind the wall to allow access up.

There are several gun loops along the wall and these would’ve required a step behind them from which to fire down.

The inside and outside of the same gun loop!

This final gun loop protected the main gate…The Barra’s Yett..where the Nationwide is now.

One final set of observations on the top of the wall is in some places (as below at the Alan’s Bastion below) that is it is broad enough to walk along but in other places like above it certainly wasn’t. It’s also not clear what that outer edge looked liked. To have safely used the gun loop above surely implies that the wall extended above further to provide protection for the defender’s head?

And now for the results of the excavation…..the first thing to note that this was the weekend of the floods and its was very wet! While we had gazebos so could dig it limited us as to what we could do. To remind you we were looking for the missing bastion in the cemetery. But we picked the wrong spot to look….and just got a big section of the wall…..argggg! We’re going back in November so fingers crossed.

The wall here is obviously highly truncated and this happened in the mid 19th century when the cemetery was expanded. The wall was built as elsewhere directly on the bedrock. It is also much smaller, c 0.8m as opposed to c1.8m wide in other places. But remember this section is both nearer the castle and also the hill is much higher. One of the rather gruesome observation is that graves were dug hard up to the wall and were often cut into the bedrock.

We have left the wall exposed for people to see! Watch this space for updates on the next phase!

Finally thanks to all who came.

and a wee ps ps in what must a very surreal note myself and the dig were filmed for a student journalism project for the University…I put my gloves on 6 times while they filmed me!…..I will try to post a link when and if I get it!

and a final ps….a map of the locations mentioned above. The brown sections are the best preserved sections of the wall and the arrows show the not just where the bits are but also if you can to the inside of the wall.

and one more ps…I’ll be talking about the wall on the 25th November at our celebration of Stirling’s wonderful past…tickets here.