Things to Do in Stirling

The St. Abb’s Head National Nature Reserve may be the best known destination along the Berwickshire coast of Scotland. Formed by a series of volcanic eruptions, it features dramatic cliffs, a rugged coastline and crystal clear waters. The reserve is especially popular with bird watchers, who flock to see some of the 30,000 guillemots, 3,600 kittiwakes and 1800 razorbills that call the area home. Visitors can also spot seals, dolphins and even whales at times. Traces of an Iron Age settlement have been found within the reserve, as have remnants of a 7th century Christian community founded by a Northumbrian princess.

Three walking trails are available around the reserve and it is fairly easy to cover all three in a day’s visit. The main trail is the Discovery Trail and two loops (the Lighthouse Loop and the Mire Loch Loop) start from the trail. A stroll along all three should take around three hours. Guided walks with park rangers are also available and a nature center showcases the history of the area, nature and wildlife and has leaflets for self-guided tours.

The Grey Mare’s Tail Nature Reserve is home to the fifth highest waterfall in the United Kingdom, also called Grey Mare’s Tail. The waterfall is a hanging valley waterfall flowing from Loch Skeen into Moffat Water Valley. The surrounding nature reserve offers dramatic scenery and a post glacial landscape, as well as rare plants and wildlife. Nearby Dobb’s Linn is known for being home to fossils at least 400 million years old and the Tail Burn Fort is thought to be a defensive or ritual site dating to the Iron Age.

It is just a short walk to the waterfall and a longer, hour-long walk, will take you all the way to Loch Skeen. Look for the peregrine falcons that nest on the craigs around the waterfall and enjoy great views of Mid Craig and Loch Craighead. For more amazing views, you can climb to the top of White Coomb, the highest hill in Dumfriesshire standing nearly 2700 feet high. Good hiking boots are recommended.

The Hill of Tarvit is an Edwardian era mansionhouse, first built in the 17th century and remodeled in 1906. With an exquisite collection of antiques, Chinese porcelain, furniture and paintings, it provides a glimpse of early 20th century Edwardian life. The Main Hall features Flemish tapestry, while the Dining Room displays fine English furniture and the Drawing Room is home to French furniture and Rococo-style plasterwork. The fireplace in the Smoking Room is made of a remnant of the nearby Scotstarvit Tower that dates to 1500.

One of the major attractions of the grounds is a nine hole hickory club golf course, which was added in 1924. Visitors can also try their hand at croquet, billiards and parlour games from the early 1900s. Alternatively enjoy one of the three marked walks around the grounds – the Woodland Walk, the Hilltop Walk or the Centenary Walk.

Arduaine Garden The Arduaine Garden is a coastal garden located on the south slope of the Arduaine Peninsula on the west coast of Scotland. Covering 20 acres, it was founded in 1898 and enjoys the warming effect of theNorth Atlantic Drift. As a result, it is home to a wide variety of flora, including rhododendrons, azaleas, magnolias, Blue Tibetan poppies, giant Himalayan lilies, palms and tree ferns. Visitors may also spot wildlife such as kestrels, seals, badgers and porpoises.

Two waymarked paths lead visitors around the garden. The shorter, green path leads past several smaller pounds before heading to the larger Heron Pond. The longer, blue path follows the length of the garden before emerging to the Owls’ Walk, which leads to a great viewpoint. It then continues around the top of the garden and back down to the Inside Garden. A stroll around both paths will take around an hour.

Flanked by the Lomond Hills in central Fife, the former royal burgh of Falkland is known for its twisting streets and centuries-old stoned houses. Dominating the town center is the famous Falkland Palace. Once the hunting lodge of the Stuart Monarchs, the palace was a favorite summer resort of Mary Queen of Scots.

Built by French masons on behalf of King James V, on a visit you’ll get to see its famous buttresses and turrets, and in the gardens lies Britain’s oldest royal tennis court, built in 1539.

The village is also known for its old horse market, Falkland Cricket Club, and famous golf club. Fans of the TV series Outlander may also recognize Falkland’s streets as the setting for the show’s opening scenes filmed in World War II.

With its cobbled streets, narrow wynds, and old tollbooth on the shores of the Firth of Forth, Culross (pronounced Koo-ross) is said to be best-preserved 17th-century town in Scotland. Seventeen miles northwest of Edinburgh, Culross once thrived on the trade of coal and salt, but when the coal dried up, so did the prosperity of the town, and so the original merchant’s houses were never demolished or tweaked into Victorian builds.

From the 1930s onwards, the National Trust for Scotland has purchased 20 of the town’s buildings in order to preserve them, and on a visit to the seaside town you can visit Culross Palace, the Study, and the Townhouse through the trust. A walk around the town will take you past whitewashed buildings and stone cottages leading to the abbey, founded by the Cistercians in 1217.

With its dramatic perch atop Abbey Craig hill, the distinctive 67-meter-tall Gothic tower of the National Wallace Monument casts a striking silhouette, looming on the horizon just north of Stirling. Built in honor of Scottish hero Sir William Wallace, the fearless freedom fighter who led Scotland to victory during the 1297 Battle of Stirling Bridge, the grand monument is a worthy tribute and is now one of Scotland’s most visited monuments.

Designed by architect J. T. Rochead, the monument took eight years to build and was finally inaugurated in 1869. Today, more than 100,000 annual visitors climb the 246 steps to the top of the tower, from where the views span Stirling Castle, Stirling town and the surrounding countryside. Following the spiral stairwell, visitors pass through three floors of exhibitions – the Hall of Arms, focusing on the Battle of Stirling Bridge; the Hall of Heroes, where Wallace’s legendary battle sword takes center stage; and the Royal Chamber, which tells the history of the monument itself. There’s also a gift shop and café housed in the ground floor Keeper’s Lodge.

A visit to the Angus Folk Museum is a great way to get a taste of Scottish rural life 200 years ago. Six 18th century cottages display one of Scotland’s finest folk collections, with many items donated by friends of Jean, Lady Maitland, or purchased at sales or auctions.

Start your tour in the reception and shop at one end of the interconnected cottages before moving on to the typical Scottish farmstead featuring a “Life on the Land” exhibition. The Smiddy features all of the tools of a working blacksmith and in the Dairy, you can see what was needed to milk cows and make butter or cheese. There is also a laundry, stable, quarters for unmarried farmer laborers and a large area for spinning and weaving, as well as a Victorian school room with blackboards, maps and an abacus. You can also see a Glenisla hearse – a horse-drawn wagon that was used to carry wealthy parishioners to their graves.

The House of Dun is a Georgian house built in 18th century that is set among Victorian gardens and woodlands and adjacent to the Montrose Basin Nature Reserve. It is home to the Hutchison and Stirling collections of paintings and furniture, including 30 paintings by prominent Scottish artists. It was originally built for David Erskine, Lord Dun, from 1730 to 1743 and was home to generations of Erskines until 1947. It functioned as a hotel until 1985.

Guided tours of the House of Dun last just over an hour and talk about the construction of the home while pointing out a variety of ornate plasterwork and period equipment, such as a boot bath from the 1800s. The surrounding gardens are a must-see, as part of the landscape has been reconstructed to what it would have looked like in the 1740s.

The Kellie Castle and Garden is located in Fife, about three miles northwest of Pittenween in eastern Scotland. Built in the 14th century, the castle was home to the Oliphant family for 250 years and is pretty much  the same today as it was when the family departed in 1613. The library ceiling is one of the oldest ornamental ceilings in Scotland and the dining room features paneling painted in the 17th century. In the stables, you can see an exhibition on the life and work of Hew Lorimer, a 20th century Scottish sculptor who took over the leads of the castle in 1937.

Outside of the castle, the Arts & Crafts Garden is full of old fashioned roses, herbaceous plants, fruits and vegetables and the Kellie Wood boasts a large pond, adventure playground and bird hide and is home to foxes, badgers, deer and rabbits.

Barry Mill The Barry Mill is a Category A listed watermill located half a mile north of the village of Barry, not far from the town of Carnoustie in eastern Scotland. Found in a fairly secluded area next to the Barry Burn, the mill consists of three floors: a meal floor (the basement), a milling floor and the top floor. The original mill standing on the site was destroyed by fire in 1814 and the current mill dates from the rebuilding. It was commercially operational until 1984, processing oats into oatmeal, and was restored by the National Trust of Scotland in 1992.

Guided tours of the mill are available and worthwhile in learning more about the process of milling grain into oatmeal. Actual milling takes place on Sunday afternoons and uses a pair of French burr stones made in Edinburgh in 1880.