Stirling Castle A few structures of the fourteenth century remain, while the outer defences fronting the town date from the early eighteenth century. Before the union with England, Stirling Castle was also one of the most used of the many Scottish royal residences, very much a palace as well as a fortress. Several Scottish Kings and Queens have been crowned at Stirling, including Mary, Queen of Scots, in 1542, and others were born or died there. There have been at least eight sieges of Stirling Castle, including several during the Wars of Scottish Independence, with the last being in 1746, when Bonnie
Hoddom Castle built for Sir John Maxwell, who acquired Hoddom in the mid 16th-century when he married the heiress Agnes, Lady Herries. Maxwell also built Repentance Tower, on the hill to the south, as a watchtower for the castle. In the aftermath of the reign of Mary, Queen of Scots, the Regent Moray besieged Hoddom, which capitulated after only one day. It was briefly the base of the Warden of the Scottish West March, but was recaptured in 1569 by supporters of Queen Mary. The following year it was attacked by the English under Lord Scroop, who blew up the tower. This