La victoire spectaculaire de William Wallace contre les envahisseurs anglais en 1297 a insufflé à toute une nation un désire de liberté. Aujourd’hui, dans le tour de 67 mètres qui domine l’horizon de Stirling, vous pouvez revivre les luttes de Wallace et admirer certains de plus beaux panoramas en Ecosse. Café et randonées dans la nature.
Der spectakuläre Sieg von William Wallace über die englischen Invasoren im Jahre 1297 begründete den Freiheitsdrang einer Nation. Heute können Sie in dem 67 Meter Turm, der deii Stadtsilhouettte von Stirling beherrscht, Wallaces Kämpfe nacherleben — und daneben einige der herrlichsten Aussichten genießes, die Schottland zue bieten hat. Café, Naturwanderungen.
La vittoria spettacolore di William Wallace del 1297 contro gli inglesi invasori ispiró una nazione alla libertà. Oggi nella torri alta 67 metri, che domina l’orrizonte di Stirling, potete rivivere le lotte di Wallace e godervi delle piú belle vista della Scozia. C’è inoltre un caffè ed è possibile praticare passegiate a contatto con la natura.
The Wallace Monument
wallace-3.jpg 41 KB Wallace Monument.
Aerial photograph by Aerofilms and Aero Pictorial, Limited, London.
Official Guide, 3rd and 5th Edns.
Erected in honour of Scotland’s national hero, Sir William Wallace, the Monument is among the most famous buildings in Scotland. It is also the most conspicuous. In favourable light, it is visible with the naked eye from points over twenty miles distant, and the view from its top extends cast to the Forth Bridge, Arthur’s Seat, and the Pentlands, and west to mountains beyond Loch Long.
The Monument is at the precipitous west end and highest point (over 300 ft.) of the Abbey Craig, a basaltic “crag-and-tail” on the north side of the Forth, against the background of the Ochils. In height and geology the Craig matches Stirling Rock, 1½ miles W.S.W., on the south side of the Forth; but the “crag” section is longer, and the Craig is wooded. It is the property of Cowane’s Hospital in Stirling, whose patrons are Stirling Town Council, to whom the Monument belongs. On its site were a “Caledonian “ fort and later military works.
The erection of the Monument was a follow on from a patriotic movement begun years before by James Grant. the novelist. Some 80,000 people were present at the laying of the foundation stone on the Bannockburn anniversary in 1861, when precious Scottish relics were carried in the procession from Stirling, headed by Lieut.-General Sir James Maxwell Wallace, representing the family of the hero. A crisis came in 1863. Enthusiasm was subsiding, funds were coming in slowly, and there were difficulties about construction costs. The Monument might have become one of Scotland’s “follies,” but for the spirit displayed by the promoters. They took the matter firmly in hand and carried on, and on 11th December, 1869, the completed building was handed over by the Committee to the Custodiers, on behalf of whom it was accepted by Provost Rankin of Stirling. The short and simple ceremony was followed by the illumination of the Monument in the evening. The total cost of the building w as £15,000.
The road to the Monument is an easy elbow gradient from the car-parking place on the Tillicoultry Road.
The building, of freestone quarried on and around the Craig, is a massive piece of masonry. The architect was John T. Rochead, of Glasgow, and the style is Scottish, Baronial. The tower is crowned with an elaborate stone “lantern,” and the total height from the ground is 220 feet. The two-storey building adjoining is the keeper’s house; the space between is roofed over with glass and is used as the Entrance Hall
The architecture of the Monument has been criticised. But Rochead’s creation has made friends with the landscape, and taken on the aspect of a pinnacle springing from the Craig.
The tower is 36 feet square, with walls graduating from 15 feet thick at the base to five feet at the top. The octagonal staircase, projecting from the north-west angle, leads by a flight of 246 steps to the platform beneath the crown. In a corbelled niche in the south-west corner is a bronze statue of Wallace in chain mail and tabard, holding aloft a two-handed sword.
The massive portal of the Entrance Hall joins the base of the tower with the lower building. Over the finely moulded archway are the arms and motto (Esperance) of the Wallace family, surmounted by a great stone thistle.
[Top or Left] 7 KB Wallace Monument. Entrance Doorway.
Fifth Edn. Official Guide.
[Bottom or Right] 12 KB Wallace Monument. Entrance Doorway. Close-up of the
arms and motto of the Wallace family.
Third Edn. Official Guide. Line drawing based on original of James Paterson.
Leading Promoter
In the Entrance Hall are a visitors’ book, show cases, and busts of the Rev. Dr. Charles Rogers, the leading promoter of the Monument, and of William Burns, a secretary of the Monument Fund. Dr. Rogers, who was chaplain to the garrison at Stirling from 1855 to 1862, became a well-known writer of historical and literary subjects, mainly Scottish. Among his works are “A Week at the Bridge of Allan “ and “The Book of Wallace.” He did much to revive the soul of Scotland.
The Reception Hall, in the base of the tower, is loftily arched, and its dim religious light is supplied by three stained glass windows representing the Scottish Crown and Regalia and Scottish Arms. On the wall is a painting of the Battle of Bannockburn, by Sir William Allan, R.A. The acoustic properties of the Hall are remarkable.
The Upper Chambers
wallace-5.jpg 15 KB Wallace Monument
Official Guide, 5th Edn.
Up a flight of stairs is the Hall of Arms. On the wall is a collection of medieval and later weapons. The stained glass windows portray the Royal Arms, the Scottish Lion, the Scottish Arms, and the Arms of the Town of Stirling.
A second flight of steps leads up to the Hall of Heroes, represented by fine busts. most of them (as well as the bronze statue on the exterior of the tower) the work of D. W. Stevenson, R.S.A. The heroes are Robert the Bruce. George Buchanan, John Knox. Allan Ramsay, Robert Burns, Robert Tannahill, Adam Smith, James Watt, Sir Walter Scott, William Murdoch, Sir David Brewster, Thomas Carlyle, Hugh Miller, Dr. Chalmers, David Livingstone, and W. E. Gladstone. The Livingstone bust, a specially fine one, was executed from “the life” by Mrs D. V. Hill. The list of donors and unveilers is of historic interest.
In cases on the walls are replicas of documents associated with Wallace, and a case containing the originals of autograph letters written in 1868 by European patriots - Garibaldi, Mazzini, Kossuth, Louis Blanc, and Karl Blind - in eulogy of Wallace. The subjects of the fine stained glass windows are a medieval Scottish archer, a spearman of the same period, Robert the Bruce in full armour, and Wallace in like guise, leaning on his sword.
On a ledge, in an inscribed shrine given by Hugh Robert Wallace, of Cloncaird Castle, Ayrshire, a lineal descendant of the hero, is the Wallace Sword, a two-handed weapon 5 ft. 4 in. long. It is said to have been taken from his side when he was captured, and to have been carried to Dumbarton Castle. where it was until its removal here in 1888. The sword is a precious relic, and its temporary disappearance some years ago was an event of national concern.
The view from the tower is much the same as that from Stirling Castle, with the added advantages of greater height and the inclusion of Stirling itself. From the foot of the Craig a road leads to what remains of the ancient Abbey of Cambuskenneth, from which the Craig takes its name. A little to the west is the road to Stirling Bridge. Between are the most astonishing of the links of Forth. In the loop cast of the Bridge, the English troops who had crossed on the old wooden bridge were slaughtered by Wallace’s army, racing down from Airthrey.
wallace-4.gif 17 KB Wallace Monument. An unusual
viewpoint.
The Monument mirrored in the quiet waters of Airthrey Loch (now
Stirling University
campus).
Official Guide, 3rd Edn.
Guardian Of Scotland
That was on September 11, 1297. Wallace was then about thirty. His career had suddenly widened from guerrilla fighting to command of a devoted army that routed the best armed and equipped army in Europe. The victory gave Scotland a brief peace during which Wallace, as Guardian of the realm, re-established Scottish trade with the Continent. His subsequent defeat at Falkirk through lack of archers and cavalry; his desertion by the barons, his mission to France, his wanderings in the Forest of Selkirk, his betrayal by “the fause Menteith,” his trial and cruel execution in London, are well recounted in lames Fergusson’s “William Wallace.” His death inspired the long struggles of Robert the Bruce that culminated in the decisive victory of Bannockburn.
From the Monument one can see seven battlefields momentous in Scottish history: Cambuskenneth (9th century), where Kenneth MacAlpin “made” Scotland; Wallace’s Stirling Bridge and Falkirk; Bannockburn, Sauchieburn, Sheriffmuir, and Falkirk (1746).
- Text: Wallace Monument The Official Guide, with Panoramic Maps, (6d.), by William Power. Third Edn., Booklet designed and printed by D. Pearson & Son, at The Sentinel Press, 9 Barnton Street, Stirling. Fifth Edn., printed for Stirling Town Council by Jamieson & Munro, Ltd., at the “Observer” Press, 40 Craigs, Stirling. [OFC Library]
- Photos: as text, unless stated.
- The Wallace Monument is open to the public all year round. Admission charged. Enquiries telephone 01786 472140.