The National Wallace Monument

 So unable to head up the second mountain as planned we headed down to Stirling to start some touristy sight seeing.

The National Wallace Memorial is there and well worth a visit.

It has recently been 'redone' and if you get the opportunity to go, do.  There is a lot of interactive learning right from the outset, the walk up to the memorial from the car park even has wooden statues to have some fun with.

 Each floor of the memorial has really interesting information about Scottish history and about William Wallace.

Having learnt nothing about Scottish history at school and only knowing that the Scots hate the English but no much about why, this was a real journey of discovery for me.

As usual the English were really crappy 'landlords' and that justified historical hatred hasn't had a chance to dissipate yet!

 William Wallace was a national hero and defeated the English at the battle of Stirling Bridge.

The famous Wallace sword dates from 1305 and has an interesting history.

 The telling of the story is done well.

 And because of the time it all happened there is little mention of women but they make up for this in the hall of heros.

There was a great quote in there which I loved but I have no idea now who said it as it is under the disk.  If you know please tell me in the comments.

From the roof top there were brilliant views of the battle site.
















I really liked it here and could have spent a lot more time but we had a lot to see so back to the car we headed.