Saturday August 12, 2017

We decided to do a day in Stirling today.  A very lovely city we both felt at home in and like it very much.  We had been here before but had only passed thru we went to Stirling Castle that day but did not have time to do anything else.

Sam had booked us five days here this time because of its close proximity to so much.  We have been able to walk to many places.  After breakfast we went to find the laundromat we had found on the map but alas it was a laundry so we left our bag there and and collected it all clean and folded later in the day what a good service Fresh N Clean, all I had to do was iron it and ready to pack again for our journey to Edinburgh on Monday.

We took ourselves up to The Church of the Holy Rude absolutely amazing really.  "Rude" or "Rood" is an old medieval word signifying the Cross of the Crucifixion.  The first Church on this site was founded by King David 1, King of Scots, in 1129,but destroyed by fire in 1406.  Shortly afterwards a grant was made by the Lord Chamberlain of Scotland to have a new Church built and the Nave, South Aisle and Tower were completed about 1414.  This part of the Church with its rounded Scots pillars, its Gothic arches and its original oak timbered roof now appears, after many changes, much as it did when first built. It was added to between 1507 and 1546.

In 1656, following a quarrel between the two ministers of the Church and their followers, the Town Council built a partition thus forming the East Church and the West Church each with its own minister. This continued until 1935 when the two congregations were united under one minister.

As always it is the generosity of members of the congregation which enable these places to exist today otherwise they would not be here for us to see.  A fellow by the name of John Rich and his daughter defrayed the cost of the organ, built in 1939, and a stained glass window.  This was kept in safe storage during the Second World War.

There has been lots of restoration the latest being between 1987 and 1993 costing 1,250,000 pounds. A beautiful stained glass window depicting the First World War has been installed about 18 months ago.

Mary Queen of Scots, worshipped in this Church.  Mary's infant son, James, who later became King James 1 of England in 1603, after the death of Queen Elizabeth, was crowned here as as King James VI of Scots on 29th July 1567 making this Church the only Church in Britain, in regular use for worship, apart from Westminster Abbey in London where a Coronation has taken place.

We went to a concert there this evening joined in with the locals and had a glass of wine afterwards met a very nice chap called Finlay who is part of the Church gave us lots of info told us how they have celebrations of all of these events throughout the year full pipe bands etc etc.  I love all this info poor Sam is suffering info overload.

We walked down the street and went to a very busy pub and wandered back to our hotel.  Sam cannot believe he has anor 8 weeks of info gathering to go.

There was also anor fellow Alex Cunningham  who in AD 1809 generously gave 4,000 pounds to educate poor boys who would not have received an education and also 1,000 pounds for the benefit of the widows of Spittals Hospital.  If not for the philanthropy of such people that education would not have been given which would have benefited countless people as it went down the line. Amazing stuff really.
 
Sabine and Sam