Stirling: New Scottish archaeological discoveries on city walls to be unveiled

Stirling Rocks – The City That Defined Scotland – is set to take place in the Church of the Holy Rude on November 30 with tickets still available HERE.

It is set to explore the impact the city of Stirling has had over the centuries on the nation, in the 900th year since the royal burgh of Stirling was first established.

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A number of leading figures are set to give talks at the event, including Dr Murray Cook, the archaeologist for Stirling Council.

We told earlier this year how he was part of a team which discovered evidence of the last ever siege of Stirling Castle by Bonnie Prince Charlie’s Jacobites.

Stirling in particular has been at the centre of a number of extraordinary discoveries, as we told last year how the remains of a lost defensive tower within the historic city walls was uncovered.

Now, The National can reveal the team also found a new bastion – a position of strength within the wall – which was discovered with a sealed and blocked room.

Together, these findings reveal for the first time that the wall had a parapet or barmekin - which, as Cook explains, “is like a firing step to allow protection to people travelling along the wall”.

Archaeologists have also recorded the wall, which is estimated to be 470 years old this year, for the first time, meaning there is now a measured drawn record of everything.

Speaking to The National, Cook explained: “Our new work reveals the wall is of international significance and the most important and best preserved in Scotland.

“It was built to Italian designs with French backing at the direction of the regent Mary de Guise, the mother of Mary Queen of Scots.

“Presumably it was to be the point of retreat if England took over the Lothians. Stirling is Scotland’s oldest inhabited location and is 900 years old this year as volunteer archaeologists keep revealing ever more secrets.

The city walls being properly recorded for the first time (Image: Supplied)

“Celts, Romans, Picts, Vikings, Edward I and II, Cromwell and Bonnie Prince Charlie all tried to control Stirling.

“At no other place has so much blood and treasure been spent to control such a tiny place.”

Cook added that he hopes the conference can have a snowball effect, helping to get more people interested in archaeology and Scottish history more generally.

“Obviously I’m passionate about this but I feel for a long time, the term archaeology was just a word most people couldn’t even spell,” he said.

The blocked-up door leading into the new bastion (Image: Supplied)

“I still struggle with that. So it feels alien and remote, it’s something that gets done to us rather than for us so I don’t think archaeology has been good at explaining why our past is important and why archaeologists are so relevant to uncovering these stories.

“We need these stories to understand where we’ve got to today so people are passionate about their past and every piece of archaeology is done with public money or at the behest of a public body – very little is private.

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“It’s our past. It’s our archaeology and I think people want to be involved because they want to contribute to understanding our country.

“Scotland is amazing and you think about all the brands that originate here – tartan, whisky – all these things are ours and we have to invite the world to experience our past because it’s amazing.”