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
Queen of Scots (train) mostly steel bodied vehicles, the original wooden bodied vintage cars were relaunched as The Queen of Scots, with both trains departing Edinburgh on tours of the Scottish Highlands during the summer of 1990. Unfortunately, that same year, the Gulf war broke out and large numbers of American tourists ceased travelling to the UK which left bookings for both trains short of expectations. Richard Edmondson decided to withdraw "The Queen of Scots" from traffic, remove the steel-bodied Sleeping Cars and store the three vintage vehicles at a private site in Sussex. The Sleeping Cars were moved around the various heritage railways,