{"id":1227,"date":"2012-10-22T21:17:57","date_gmt":"2012-10-22T20:17:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/?p=1227"},"modified":"2025-11-23T06:58:20","modified_gmt":"2025-11-23T06:58:20","slug":"stirling-and-continuing-in-a-southerly-direction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/2012\/10\/22\/stirling-and-continuing-in-a-southerly-direction\/","title":{"rendered":"Stirling And Continuing In A Southerly Direction"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Saturday we decided to give Eileen a day off and we caught the bus into Stirling.\u00a0 We walked up the steep streets to the castle which sits on the top of a hill of volcanic rock.\u00a0 Four and a half hours were spent wandering around the various rooms, exhibits, and along the rampart walls.\u00a0 We really liked it, but apparently Queen Victoria preferred Edinburgh Castle\u2026.<\/p>\n

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Stirling Castle from Queen Anne’s Garden<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

We strolled back down past many old and interesting buildings to the new shopping area where we ate a very late lunch and had a wee wander around the shops.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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Robert the Bruce looking out to the Ochil Hills<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

We then hopped on another bus for our return journey back to Eileen.\u00a0 The bus stopped at our bus stop opposite the cemetery, but before we jumped off, the driver guessed we weren\u2019t intending to visit any deceased relatives and asked if we were staying at the campsite up the road.\u00a0 After confirming we were, he very kindly drove us to the gate of the campsite.\u00a0 Brilliant, and definitely not a service we would ever get in London, or Sydney!!!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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The National Wallace Memorial from Stirling Castle<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

The National Wallace Monument was our first stop on Sunday.\u00a0 It\u2019s a wonderful, freestanding, Scottish baronial style, tower sitting on top of Abbey Craig where William Wallace led his troops to victory against the English at the Battle of Stirling Bridge in 1297.\u00a0 The monument was built in 1860 and stands 220ft (67 metres) high, making it a real feature in the landscape near Stirling.\u00a0 You step inside and climb up a stone spiral staircase which is set to one side of the tower.\u00a0 There are three large halls inside; one on top of the other, each containing interesting exhibits.\u00a0 Inside one of the halls there is a cabinet with William Wallace\u2019s broadsword which is over 5ft (1.53 metres) long, that’s bigger than me; he must have been very tall to swing that around!<\/p>\n

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William Wallace’s enormous broadsword<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

When you reach the 246th<\/sup> step it opens out on to the \u2018crown\u2019 on top from where you have superb views over Stirling Castle, the Trossachs, the Ochil Hills and the River Forth.\u00a0 Och aye, it\u2019s definitely worth the climb.<\/p>\n

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Ox bow on the Forth at Stirling<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

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Under the crown at the top of the National Wallace Monument<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

When you have smoky bacon for breakfast in a campervan, you get to ‘enjoy’ it all day!\u00a0 Before lunchtime, with the sun shining in, we had to open the windows to try and reduce the scent as it was making us both feel hungry all over again.<\/p>\n

Next stop on today\u2019s itinerary was at the Falkirk Wheel; what a contrast to the last stop.\u00a0 It\u2019s the first and only rotating boat lift in the world and is an amazing feat of modern engineering, replacing\u00a0eleven locks on the canal.<\/p>\n

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The Falkirk Wheel<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

We arrived at midday, just in time to board a boat in the Forth & Clyde Canal basin.\u00a0 The boat then enters the end of the Falkirk Wheel which rotates very slowly and we were swept 115ft (35metres) into the air.\u00a0 When the gate opens at the top, the boat floats out onto the Union Canal. You don\u2019t travel a long distance in the hour, but I couldn\u2019t stop marvelling at the whole structure whilst enjoying the smooth leisurely cruise.<\/p>\n

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The Falkirk Wheel rotating<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

We now knew that we wouldn\u2019t have time to visit Edinburgh, so we skirted the city on the ring road and took the A7 south through Galashiels to the Gibson Park campsite in Melrose.\u00a0 Before dinner, we went for a short wander down the main street and noticed it was nothing like its namesake in Los Angeles\u2026. But it does have a claim to fame in being the place where Rugby Sevens was invented in 1883; there\u2019s a bit of trivia for the next quiz night.<\/p>\n

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Melrose ……place…?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It was a very foggy, mizzly morning on Monday.\u00a0 As we drove south through Hawick and down the endlessly narrow and winding B6399, we couldn\u2019t see anything in the way of scenery, but thankfully we could see far enough to spot the road in front of us.\u00a0 By the time we reached Kershopefoot and farewelled Scotland, the mist had lifted and we could see some of the hills and autumn colours around us.<\/p>\n

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Autumn colours in Cumbria<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

We then cut across to the B6318 to follow Hadrian\u2019s Wall heading east.\u00a0 We stopped occasionally along the road at Birdoswald, Walltown Crags and Steel Rigg, but by the time we reached Housesteads Fort the constant mizzly rain was getting to us and we opted not to pay to wander around in the mud looking at the small remains of the old roman fort.<\/p>\n

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Hadrian’s Wall at Birdoswald<\/p>\n

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Hadrian’s Wall at Steel Rigg<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

We decided to push on and crossed the river at Newcastle singing \u201cFog On The Tyne\u201d, because there really was a lot of fog on the Tyne.<\/p>\n

We were feeling a bit tired from what we call a \u2018rather non-day\u2019; it wasn\u2019t particularly productive, exciting, or restful.\u00a0 But just south of Gateshead, we spotted the \u2018Angel Of The North\u2019, so we pulled off the motorway for a closer look.\u00a0 It was created by Antony Gormley in 1998 and is Britain\u2019s largest sculpture; at 65ft high (20 metres) with a wingspan of 175ft (53.5 metres) that\u2019s almost as big as a jumbo jet.\u00a0 It is one of the most viewed pieces of art in the world, seen by more than one person every second, at least 90,000 every day, or 33 million every year.\u00a0 That\u2019s a lot of people travelling down the A1 !!!<\/p>\n

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Laura and the Angel of the North<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

We finally pulled in to the Grange Caravan site near Durham for an overnight break with our smucks on our feet, before tootling down to Scarborough tomorrow to catch up with our friends David and Wendy.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On Saturday we decided to give Eileen a day off and we caught the bus into Stirling.\u00a0 We walked up the steep streets to the castle which sits on the top of a hill of volcanic rock.\u00a0 Four and a half hours were spent wandering around the various rooms, exhibits, and along the rampart walls.\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1231,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1227","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-on-the-road-in-great-britain"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1227","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1227"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1227\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8195,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1227\/revisions\/8195"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1231"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1227"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1227"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1227"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}