Scotland - National Wallace Monument

The National Wallace Monument sits high on a hill called the Abbey Craig in Stirling, Scotland.  Wallace is better known to Americans as "Braveheart" but be aware that the movie holds no relation to the actual man or the events leading up to his becoming a Scottish hero.  There were no open battle charges and no blue faces and Wallace wasn't born in the Highlands of Scotland.

Map depicting the top of Abbey Craig, the location of the monument and the trails.

Click to enlarge for reading. 

There is a shuttle bus from the visitor center to the monument but we elected to walk the trail.  Along the trail are wooden sculptures.

Bluebells along the path

View of Stirling Castle from the top of Abbey Craig



The Keeper's Cottage is to the side of the monument.

The monument was built as a tourist attraction.

Statue of William Wallace

Crest over the entry door.

There are 246 steps to the top of the tower with three levels of displays which give you time to catch your breath.

This first stretch is straight but the rest is a tight spiral staircase.  Since they erected this monument as a tourist attraction you think they would have made two staircases, one to go up and one to go down.



The Heater Shield was used one-handed leaving the sword hand free to attack.  It was used to defend the body and barge or strike at an opponent.

Each level has stained glass windows.  More on them later.

Windows on the ground floor of the monument show The Honours of Scotland - the country's crown jewels - flanked by two unicorns.  One holds the Lion Rampart and the other the Scottish flag.

This lighting fixture was interesting.

The Royal Chambers ceiling was different from the other two.  It arched upwards and had openings for light. 

Once I got on the open area at the top, I looked down through these windows to see my sister in the Royal Chamber.

Up close detail of the top of the monument.

From the first opening on the open top, you had to walk almost all the way around the monument to access the upper most open area.

From the top we had a fine view of the city including the B&B where we were staying.  It is located about 1/4 of the way up the right side of the photo and slightly in from the edge.

Here's a zoomed in view with Eef all alone in the parking lot.

Stirling Castle in the distance.

Stirling Castle is just above the curve of the river on the right.

Looking up at the base of the "crown" of the monument.



We wound out way back down the stairs and decided to walk around the Abbey Craig

More gorse but this is different. Some of the gorse had flowers that weren't all yellow.

They had red on them also.

Once again we see Japonica, at least that is what a B&B owner called it.  I looked up what japonica was supposed to look like and this doesn't look like the photos.  When I first saw it, I though it was a bush called kinnikinnick that I had seen in Washington state.

Close up of the foliage.