Stirlingshire

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Stirlingshire

historical county, Scotland, United Kingdom

Also known as: Stirling

Written and fact-checked by The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica

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Also called:: Stirling

Key People:: Rob Roy

Related Places:: Scotland

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Stirlingshire, historic county, central Scotland. In the west it borders Loch Lomond and incorporates a section of the Highlands. It extends east into the Midland Valley (Central Lowlands) between the Rivers Forth and Kelvin. At the centre of Stirlingshire the volcanic Campsie Fells and Kilsyth and Gargunnock hills form an elevated mass amid the Lowlands. In the east the county fronts the shore of the River Forth estuary. The northern portion of Stirlingshire lies within the Stirling council area. Along the River Kelvin in the southwest the Lennox area is part of East Dunbartonshire, and the area around Kilsyth lies in North Lanarkshire. Southeastern Stirlingshire constitutes the Falkirk council area.

Archaeological research has uncovered evidence of Neolithic settlement in Stirlingshire. The Antonine Wall, locally known as Graham’s Dyke, was constructed by the Romans in ad 142; it connects the Rivers Forth and Clyde and passes through southeastern Stirlingshire. Many Roman relics have been found at Castlecary and Camelon. After the withdrawal of the Romans, the native Picts gradually retreated before the advance of the Anglo-Saxons and Scots. Stirling received a royal charter from David I (c. 1130) and became a trading centre.

The Stuart kings ruled from Stirling Castle until the union of the English and Scottish crowns. Stirlingshire played a conspicuous part in the struggle for Scottish independence as the site of several of the exploits of Sir William Wallace and Robert the Bruce. The three great battles for independence were fought in the region—Stirling Bridge (1297), Falkirk (1298), and Bannockburn (1314). James III was stabbed to death in a cottage in the village of Milton following the Battle of Sauchieburn (1488). The Covenanters met a disastrous defeat at Kilsyth in 1645. The transitory victory of Prince Charles Edward, the Young Pretender, at Falkirk in 1746 was the last significant battle to take place in the county.

The coalfield in the southeast underlay the growth of heavy industry during the late 18th and 19th centuries in the area that centres on Falkirk. The completion of the Forth and Clyde Canal across southern Stirlingshire in 1790 further spurred industrial development. By 1800 the Carron Iron Works near Falkirk was one of the largest smelting works in Europe. During the 20th century coal mining and iron and steel production declined dramatically, but a petrochemical industry developed at Grangemouth, the county’s main port, and light manufacturing and service activities developed in many of the county’s towns.

This article was most recently revised and updated by Amy Tikkanen.

Stirling Castle

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Stirling Castle

castle, Stirling, Scotland, United Kingdom

Written by Richard Cavendish

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Stirling Castle, historically and architecturally significant castle, mostly dating from 15th and 16th centuries, in Stirling, Scotland. Dominating major east–west and north–south routes, the fortress’s strategic importance gave it a key role in Scottish history. Standing 250 feet (75 m) higher than the surrounding terrain on the flat top of an ancient extinct volcano above the River Forth and commanding excellent views in every direction, it was the principal royal stronghold of the Stuart kings from the time of Robert II until the union of Scotland and England in 1707. Whoever held Stirling, it was said, had the key to Scotland.

There has been a fortress at Stirling since prehistoric times, but the first record of the castle dates to the 12th century. It has seen its share of violence, having been attacked at least 16 times in its history. It withstood a prolonged and brutal siege by Edward I of England in 1304, and another, this time while it was manned by an English garrison, by Robert the Bruce 10 years later during the Battle of Bannockburn. The 8th earl of Douglas in 1452 was invited to dinner and stabbed to death at the hands of James II and then thrown through a window. Rebels against James VI seized Stirling Castle in 1584. The Young Pretender tried to take the castle in 1746 but was unsuccessful.

Most of the buildings of Stirling Castle that are now standing date from the late 15th century and later. James IV built the Great Hall—at 138 feet by 47 feet (42 by 14 m), still an awe-inspiring space—about 1500; Daniel Defoe called it “the noblest I ever saw in Europe.” The royal palace, in its Renaissance splendour, was built for James V in the 1540s, though he did not live to see it completed. It was in the Chapel Royal that his daughter Mary was crowned queen of Scotland when she was nine months old, and she spent much of her childhood at the castle—a little hole in the ramparts is said to have been made especially for her to peep through. Her son, James VI of Scotland (and later James I of England), was also baptized in the chapel, and he later rebuilt it in 1594. The Chapel Royal and the Great Hall were restored in the 1990s, and the entire royal palace underwent a painstaking restoration in 2001–11. The King’s Old Building is now home to the Regimental Museum of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders.

Richard Cavendish