Stirling Castle

The story

Stirling Castle crowns Castle Hill above the city of Stirling in central Scotland. The hill is part of the Stirling Sill, a body of quartz-dolerite about 350 million years old that glaciers later sculpted into a "crag and tail," leaving sheer cliffs on three sides. From that height the castle commanded what was, until the 1890s, the lowest crossing point of the River Forth, and whoever held it controlled the route between the Lowlands and the north.

The castle enters the written record around 1110, when Alexander I dedicated a chapel there; he died at Stirling in 1124. After William I was captured by the English in 1174, he had to give up Stirling until 1189.

During the Wars of Scottish Independence the castle changed hands repeatedly. By 1303 it was the last stronghold still held by the Scots, and in April 1304 Edward I arrived with at least 17 siege engines. When the garrison under William Oliphant offered to surrender on 20 July, Edward reportedly made some of them go back inside so that he could test his newest engine, "Warwolf," probably a huge trebuchet, which wrecked the gatehouse.

The great buildings that stand today date mostly from the 15th and 16th centuries, when Stirling was one of the most favored royal residences in Scotland, as much palace as fortress. James V created the Royal Palace, built under Sir James Hamilton of Finnart with masons brought from France; his widow, Mary of Guise, finished it after his death in 1542. In July 1543 their baby daughter, Mary, Queen of Scots, was moved to Stirling to keep her safe, and her coronation took place in the Chapel Royal that 9 September, amid the war with England later dubbed the Rough Wooing. She was raised at Stirling until she was sent away in 1548. In all, Stirling saw at least eight sieges, the last in 1746, when Bonnie Prince Charlie failed to take it.

The legend

Stirling has a crowded ghostlore, and its best-known figure is the Green Lady. Tradition makes her a girl from the Highlands who served Mary, Queen of Scots. The usual version says she dreamed or feared that fire would harm the queen and sat up to watch over her, but fell asleep; her candle set the bed hangings alight, and while Mary escaped, the girl died. Other versions make her a heroine who perished rescuing the queen. Her appearances are widely taken as a warning of trouble ahead, most often fire.

The story grew around a real event. The English ambassador Thomas Randolph reported that in September 1561 the curtains and canopy of Mary's bed at Stirling were set alight by a candle as she lay asleep (sources give the date as the 13th or the 24th). Randolph's account mentions no servant and no death. Historic Environment Scotland, which runs the castle, points out on its own blog that there is no written evidence the servant ever existed. No first written source for the legend has been found.

Even so, the Green Lady has a long list of reported sightings. A young soldier is said to have watched her glide down the steps leading down to the old regimental base of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, then move right through him, and a cook in the Officers' Mess during the garrison era reportedly fainted on seeing a translucent green figure behind him. More recently, a Historic Environment Scotland staff member, Laurie Risk, a self-described skeptic, wrote of a door handle turning by itself, rails of uniforms toppling and windows rattling in a room at the foot of the Prince's Tower that staff call the Green Lady's room.

She is not alone. The Pink Lady reportedly makes her way from the castle down toward the Church of the Holy Rude and the Ladies' Rock, and she is associated with a feeling of longing. Her identity is disputed: a woman hunting for the husband or lover she lost in battle, a widow of Edward I's 1304 siege returning to find her husband, or Mary herself. A Black Lady supposedly roams the Back Walk, the path beneath the walls, after dark; her identity is a blank.

There are male ghosts too. A man in full Highland dress is described as so lifelike that visitors mistake him for a guide, until he turns away or disappears, in some versions through a doorway that has since been bricked up. An enthusiast website tells of a sentry found dead on the battlements in the 1820s with a terrified expression, and of officers of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders hearing footsteps on sections of battlement that no longer existed, in 1946 and again about ten years later. In the King's Old Building, cleaners have reported footsteps overhead from a third floor destroyed by fire in the 19th century, and a photograph from the 1930s supposedly captured a ghostly guardsman's shadow; both stories appear in David Kinnaird's book Haunted Stirling.

The castle's ghosts are part of its public image: VisitScotland included Stirling in its October 2024 list of Scotland's most haunted castles, citing the Green and Pink Ladies and phantom footsteps. We found no television ghost hunt filmed in the castle itself; the Spooked Scotland episode often linked to Stirling (series 1, episode 3, 2022) was shot at the nearby Old Town Jail. The fairest summary comes from the castle's own staff blog: none of these stories can be verified.

What remains today

A few structures survive from the 14th century, but most of what visitors see is 15th- and 16th-century work, fronted on the town side by outer defenses rebuilt in the early 18th century. The Forework, the old gatehouse range, was probably meant more to impress than to resist artillery; it was dismantled over time and consolidated in its present form in 1810. Its west tower, the Prince's Tower, still stands to full height against the later palace. The artillery works raised for Mary of Guise, including the "French Spur," form the core of the present Outer Defences.

Within the walls are the Royal Palace, the Chapel Royal, the King's Old Building, a regimental museum and two gardens, one with a bowling green. Below the west wall lies the King's Knot, a formal garden now visible only as earthworks, laid out on the site of a medieval tournament ground called the Round Table. The castle is a scheduled monument.

Visiting

Stirling Castle is managed by Historic Environment Scotland and open to visitors daily; in 2024 hours were 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., with last entry at 4 p.m. Check the official website for current times, tickets and events. The Prince's Tower, the King's Old Building and the battlements that feature in the ghost stories are all part of the castle complex, though not every room is open to the public.

We found no official ghost tour inside the castle. Instead, a Stirling Ghost Walk led by David Kinnaird, author of Haunted Stirling, has started at the Old Town Jail and taken in the Holy Rude cemeteries beneath the castle (it was part of the 2017 History Live festival); check whether it is still offered. The castle stands high on its rock, so stay on paths near the cliffs.

Sources

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2. In Stirling Castle or A Scottish Palace (Un Palais Ecossais) — Internet Archive · David Young Cameron (British, 1865–1945), 1899-01-01 · https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/
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Text written by AI from the sources above and checked by a separate AI fact-check (how we work). Images: credits and licenses under each picture.