Day Two, Tour of Stirling

So first full day here we went through an incredibly long and arduous orientation which for the most part was very boring. They did feed us breakfast and lunch, however, which was nice. Probably the last free meal I will get until I leave. We also learned a bit about the history of Stirling which was neat but I was so tired it was hard to focus. Stirling has been the focus of many major events in Scottish history and was home to the Scottish monarchy for a long time before they came under English rule. The castle of Stirling (which we only visited but didn't go inside because of time constraints) is a lasting testament to that history.

The reason that one building is so yellow is because a while back part of the castle burned down and they rebuilt it with the stone's original color before aging. Personally I think the  yellow is hideous but whatever. As can be kinda seen in this photo the castle was heavily garrisoned.

So after all that orientation we did a walking tour of the campus and let me say this, this campus makes every other campus I have ever seen hideously ugly and pathetic. I wish I could have come here for college but you know...money and separation issues and all that. Anyways their facilities are amazing, especially their sporting facilities where I intend to spend a lot of time. They have swimming pools, weight rooms, a track, a basketball courts....ect. It will supplement my hiking well.

That is the loch in the middle of the campus :D Anyways then we went on a bus tour of Stirling and the surrounding towns. It took a while and it rained but it was fun. We went around Stirling for a while then headed out to a town called Dunblane where the oldest cathedral in Scotland is located.

The lower dark half of the tower was built around 1100 AD and the rest of the cathedral was built around 1300AD. It was not the most impressive cathedral I have ever seen but it was still pretty amazing. My favorite part was actually the doors.

I mean look at that thing! All the entrance doors were like that. One of them on one side was crumbling on the top. It was pretty cool. Another awesome part of the cathedral was the graveyard. This was the second oldest tombstone I found. (I only had about ten minutes to search sadly). It is from 1738. I realized after I took the picture that the one next to it was 1737 but oh well. It seemed like every other grave of the men buried in the graveyard had the name William.

After that we went to a battlefield where Robert the Bruce stood and fought the British. There was a monument where they roughly think he held the Scotland banner. Behind it was a large statue of him. (featured above).  After that we went and did a brief walking tour of Stirling then went shopping where I bought a lot of groceries which I talked about briefly in my previous post. Hopefully I will be able to feed myself successfully...hopefully. Anyways my first class is tomorrow for which I am required to watch Braveheart...which I am doing at the moment. After that I intend to start my exploration of the mountain. Did you know the largest wild predator in Scotland is the fox? It is very sad. Anyways, toodle-loo for now