"Freedom!" The WIlliam Wallace Monument and Stirling

Still determined to see more of Scotland while we are up here; we were prompted to venture outside Glasgow when Jus and Paul came up to visit. We finally settled on visiting the William Wallace monument in Stirling ...

... and then over to Stirling Castle and a walk around Stirling. Walking across to a small hill next to the Castle we found two cannons and an old "beheading stone" which appears to have been out of service for some time. Fortunately it was caged, as Max (Jus & Paul's dog) had found something dead and festering to roll in ... but for the cage around the stone, the dog could well have been missing it's head! The stench was just too much, even in all that open air ... ! There is an hysterically funny follow on story about washing the smell off Max in Sainsbury's carpark (... but we'll leave Jus and Paul to tell you that one).

You can see some more images here, but not of Max. Just be glad there aren't 'scratch and sniff' blogs or I would have been tempted to share..

View from Queens Park (Glasgow)

Out exploring the "Southside" of Glasgow this weekend. We had been told that there were great views across the whole of Glasgow from 'the flagpole' at the top of the hill in Queens Park. Tempted by the possibility of the view (and in broad sunshine) we thought there would be a good chance that we would be able to see something. Needless to say, we got to the "flagpole" and it started raining ...! We hung around (not that there was any cover or other options) until the rain had passed and the famous view revealed itself.

Attached below a shot looking North across Glasgow with the "squinty bridge" and University in the distance. You could actually see all the way out to Dumbarton. Yup, it was worth the trip.


You can see the rest of the images here