Fun & Games

The oldest football in the world was found in the Palace at Stirling Castle.

There are three walnut trees in the castle.

The Palace took four years to build and was built on top of other buildings as there wasn’t enough space for it.

Mary Queen of Scots played football, tennis and golf.

There is a spell to protect the castle from witches carved into one of the doors in the Palace.

Mary Queen of Scots became queen when she was only 6 days old.

The oldest building in the castle today dates from 1381.

After the Battle of Bannockburn Robert the Bruce destroyed Stirling Castle to stop it falling into English hands.

The statues of the lions and unicorns on the top of the Great Hall weigh ¾ of a tonne each.

A man called John Damian tried to fly from the castle with homemade wings in 1507. It didn't work!

There are three wells in Stirling Castle and two still have water in them.

Football was banned by James I in 1429.

Most medieval battles were over in a few hours, some lasted only 20 minutes! The battle of Bannockburn in 1314 lasted for two days (but they didn’t fight all the time).

The castle has two holly trees. These trees are male and female and only the lower leaves are spiky to stop animals eating them - the leaves further up the tree are smooth.

Children working as servants in the castle were paid 2 loaves of bread and 8 pints of ale a day. They also received a wage of £1 a year which was paid on 22 November.

After the Battle of Stirling Bridge in 1297 William Wallace used the skin of a dead English Lord to make himself a belt and a sword holder.

There is a hole in the wall of the Douglas Gardens that is reputed to have been made so a young Mary Queen of Scots could look at the view.

The black posts, called bollards, in the castle are actually small cannons stuck into the ground with their barrels blocked off.

When James V married Mary of Guise he wasn't even at the wedding! He sent someone else to stand in for him.