We carried on along the road and were lured in to Argyll House which was free to enter as part of the Stirling Castle ticket. It was the dwelling place of a certain Sir William Alexander – a poet who won favour with the royal family was knighted and made Earl of Stirling. I found the house quite plain considering the extravagance we had seen in our travels, but it was an interesting visit nonetheless.
It was a short journey up the road and soon we were at the castle. It was quite a bit bigger than we had originally thought and it looked like we would be here for a while. Our explorer pass got us in for free and we were soon wandering around the inner courtyard of the castle. The ramparts afforded exceptional views of Stirling including a clear view of the William Wallace memorial perched atop its little hill. We wandered through a lovely garden, through the Great Hall, looked inside the church, went through the Palace which was currently being restored and strolled through the original underground housing of the court staff.
It was getting very close to lunch time so we popped into a café and had a coffee and some cake and scones before venturing back out to complete our tour. We had told Isobel that we would be home by 1:00 for lunch and to get Will down for a sleep so we decided we would see the William Wallace memorial later. On the way back, I had a quick look around the outside of the Church of the Holy Rude before making our way back to the car.
Will fell asleep just before we got home and during the transfer to his bed Will received a knock on the head which was enough to wake him up fully. As such he didn’t get much of an afternoon sleep so instead we played outside for a bit. Lou was feeling like she needed some retail therapy so we drove to the Howgate shopping centre in Falkirk. There were a lot of things to look at but the prices were a little high for our dollar so we didn’t buy much. We found a cute original Eeyore toy that Will grabbed and hugged tight so we had to buy that for him. We also found a Piglet toy and cup set as a present for Isobel for her generous hospitality. Just before we left we bought a few essential supplies for our trip to Tahiti – sunscreen and insect repellent!
We didn’t have long before we had to meet Cas and Morgan so we bolted along the road to the William Wallace memorial. The journey took a little longer than expected so we had to make the unfortunate decision to leave without going up. We did get a good look from the bottom of the hill and Will had his photo taken with the William Wallace statue. We jumped in the car and headed for Linlithgow at maximum warp.
Will fell asleep in the car and was still asleep when we met Cas and Morgan at the train station. We tried to go to The Star and Garter but it was full of men and didn’t look like a great place to go. I suggested we go to The Four Marys where we had gone with our extended Scottish family last time. I dropped everyone outside the front door and found a place to park up the street leading to the palace. Will was still asleep so Lou took him inside still strapped into his carseat.
I went in and had another nice Deuchars while we all stood around at a table. The bar was packed full and had the same lovely feel that I remember from my last trip. Will woke up and after introducing him to Cas and Morgan, I took him for a walk around the castle grounds before going home and putting him down to bed. After I made sure he was asleep, I made my way back to Linlithgow.
We stayed for a good couple of hours, had a few more drinks and traded stories covering the last couple of years since we had seen them. We dropped them back at the station just in time for them to catch their train which had just pulled up to the station. We went back home, packed our bags again and went to sleep.
