Page:The castellated and domestic architecture of Scotland from the twelfth to the eighteenth century (1887) - Volume 1.djvu/484

 THIRD PERIOD 464 STIRLING CASTLE J STIRLING CASTLE. The Castle of Stirling, which occupies so important a place in connection with the civil history of Scotland, is of no less interest in connection with the architectural history of the country. The first occupation of the Castle rock as a place of strength is of unknown antiquity, but the naturally strong site must have pointed it out at an early period as a suitable position for a stronghold, and it was no doubt originally crowned by a hill fort similar to those so frequently found on the tops of heights in this and other parts of Scotland. The value of the site in a strategic point of view, forming as it does the key to the passage from the Lowlands to the North, would probably also be soon discovered, and would tend to make its careful fortification a matter of great moment, particularly at the time when the country north of the Forth formed a separate kingdom from that of Lothian, south of the river. The original walls of mixed stone and earth, with their surrounding ditches, would then probably be of unusual height and depth. In the twelfth century the Castle of Stirling was considered a place of great importance. Stirling, along with Edinburgh, Roxburgh, and Berwick, formed the four chief fortresses of the kingdom, which were pledged to England for the payment of the ransom of William the Lion, who fell into the hands of the English in 1174, but these castles were afterwards restored to the Scots, along with their King, by Richard i. We have no information as to when walls of stone and lime were substituted for the primitive ramparts, but we find that the Castle of Stirling was amongst the strongest in the kingdom at the time of the invasion of Edward i. It was then surrounded with high and strong walls, which enabled the garrison, in 1304, to offer an obstinate resistance to all Edward's means of attack, and to keep his army at bay for several months with a garrison which finally consisted of only twenty-eight men. The account of this siege, like that of Caerlaverock Castle, also undertaken by Edward, shows how inferior the means of attack at that time were to those of defence. Being unable to reduce the Castle with the stones hurled against it from his catapults, the King ordered the roofs of the Churches of St. Andrews and Dunfermline to be stripped of their lead coverings in order to obtain the means of making heavier balls to be launched against the walls from his engines. It seems doubtful whether any part of the walls existing at that time can now be traced, but the present walls are probably in great part on the old foundations. The oldest part appears to be that adjoining the postern (Fig. 404) at the north-east angle. The arch of this postern is certainly of old date, and, together with the steep vaulted passage pass- ing below the buildings, and ascending to the upper platform of the