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
Newbyres Castle Newbyres Castle Newbyres Castle was a 16th-century tower house, in Gorebridge, Midlothian, Scotland, west of the main street. The tower occupied a roughly triangular position, which was naturally defended by deeply worn water-courses. In 1543 Michael Borthwick of Glengelt acquired the land from James, Abbot of Newbattle, with the consent of the abbey’s patroness, Mary, Queen of Scots, and built the property; the castle was purchased by Sir James Dundas of Arniston in 1624. By the early 20th century Newbyres was in an unsound, ruinous condition, and the local council demolished it in 1963 for reasons of 'public safety'. It