Gallery
Stirling & the Monuments
The castle, the monument, the old bridge and the field at Bannockburn. This is home, and it is the patch I know best in every light and every season.
The photographs
Stirling Castle, the Wallace Monument, Bannockburn and Doune.
Click any photograph to see it full size. Every one can be printed and framed.
Stirling Castle at blue hour
Stirling Castle just after sunset, when the floodlights come on and the sky turns deep blue. From above you can read the whole castle at once: the outer defences in front, the palace buildings lit gold at the top of the rock, and the lights of Stirling spreading out beyond.
Stirling Castle on its crag
The reason the castle is here at all: a crag of volcanic rock with cliffs on three sides, above the lowest crossing of the River Forth. Whoever held Stirling held the road between the Lowlands and the Highlands, which is why it changed hands so often during the Wars of Independence.
Stirling Castle at sunset
Sunset over Stirling Castle, the walls floodlit and the sky on fire behind them. The Royal Palace inside was built for James V around 1540 and is one of the finest Renaissance buildings in Scotland. Mary, Queen of Scots was crowned at the castle in 1543.
Stirling Castle from the air in autumn
Low autumn sun across the castle rock and the fields below it. From this height it is easy to see why the castle was built where it is: the crag rises straight out of the flat land of the Forth valley, and nothing gets near it unseen.
The Wallace Monument lit green and red
The National Wallace Monument is floodlit in different colours through the year to mark events and causes. It stands on the Abbey Craig, the hill where William Wallace watched the English army gather before his victory at the Battle of Stirling Bridge in 1297.
The National Wallace Monument from above
The monument was finished in 1869 and stands 67 metres tall, with 246 steps up a spiral stair to the crown at the top. The Wallace Sword is kept inside. From the air you see what its Victorian builders intended: a tower on a wooded crag that can be seen from all over the Forth valley.
Robert the Bruce at Bannockburn
Robert the Bruce at Bannockburn, the statue by Pilkington Jackson unveiled in 1964 beside the Rotunda. The battle here in June 1314 was the great Scottish victory of the Wars of Independence, and it was fought a short walk from where Fly Caledonia is based.
Stirling Old Bridge
Built around 1500, Stirling Old Bridge was for centuries the lowest crossing of the River Forth and the gateway to the north. Its southern arch was broken in 1745 to stop the Jacobite army. The wooden bridge of Wallace's battle in 1297 stood close by.
Stirling under snow
A morning of proper snow on Stirling, looking over the railway station and up through the old town to the castle. The white roofs stacking up the hill show how the old town grew along the ridge that leads up to the castle rock.
Doune Castle
Doune Castle, a few miles north-west of Stirling, was built in the late 1300s for Robert Stewart, Duke of Albany, and has changed remarkably little since. It is a favourite with film crews: Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Winterfell in the first episode of Game of Thrones, and Castle Leoch in Outlander.
New photographs are being added to this gallery. Have a look at the others in the meantime.
About the place
The brooch that clasps the Highlands and the Lowlands.
Stirling has long been called the huge brooch that clasps the Highlands and the Lowlands together. The castle, the monument, two battlefields and the old bridge all sit within a few miles of each other, which makes it one of the best places in Scotland to photograph history from the air.
Stirling Castle
Stirling Castle is one of the largest and most important castles in Scotland. It sits on Castle Hill, a crag of volcanic rock above the River Forth, and for centuries it guarded the lowest crossing of the river: the link between the Lowlands and the Highlands.
Mary, Queen of Scots was crowned here in 1543, and her son James VI was baptised here in 1566. The Great Hall and the Royal Palace, restored and cared for by Historic Environment Scotland, are two of the finest royal buildings of their age anywhere in the country. From the air the whole castle reads at once: the outer defences, the palace, the Great Hall and the drop on every side.
The National Wallace Monument
The Wallace Monument stands on the Abbey Craig, two miles north-east of the castle. It was finished in 1869, rises 67 metres, and has 246 steps up to the crown at the top, with views across the Forth valley to the Ochils and the Trossachs.
It remembers William Wallace, who with Andrew Moray defeated the English army at the Battle of Stirling Bridge in 1297. The monument is floodlit at night, often in colours for events and causes, as in the green and red photograph above.
Bannockburn
In June 1314 Robert the Bruce defeated the army of Edward II at Bannockburn, the decisive Scottish victory of the Wars of Independence. The battlefield, the Rotunda and the Bruce statue are looked after by the National Trust for Scotland, with a visitor centre on the site.
Fly Caledonia is based in Bannockburn, so this is the home patch: the place photographed most often, in the most kinds of light.
Stirling Old Bridge and the River Forth
The Old Bridge was built around 1500 and for centuries it was the lowest bridge over the Forth and the key to the north. Its southern arch was cut in 1745 to stop the Jacobite army. The wooden bridge where Wallace won his battle in 1297 stood close by. Below the castle the Forth winds across the flat carse in huge loops, which is one of the great sights from the air.
Doune Castle and around Stirling
Doune Castle, built in the late 1300s for Robert Stewart, Duke of Albany, is a short drive north-west of Stirling and one of the best preserved medieval castles in Scotland. Beyond it lie Callander and the Trossachs, on the road north to Glencoe and Rannoch Moor, and in the other direction the Kelpies and the Falkirk Wheel are less than half an hour away.
Prints of Stirling
Every photograph in this gallery can be printed, in a white, black or natural frame at A4 £60, A3 £90 or A2 £120, or mounted for a frame you already have at £9 or £15. A Stirling Castle print is a good present for anyone who grew up in Stirling, studied here or got married nearby. See the framed prints or the whole catalogue.
Drone photography in Stirling
The same drone and the same eye are available for commissions: homes and estates, businesses, hotels, events and construction sites across Stirling and central Scotland. Fly Caledonia is CAA registered and insured to £5 million. See drone photography in Stirling for what a shoot involves.
Questions people ask
Can I buy a print of Stirling Castle?
Yes. Every photograph on this page can be printed and framed in white, black or natural at A4 £60, A3 £90 or A2 £120, or mounted for a frame you already have at £9 or £15. Use the form below and say which one.
Where is Fly Caledonia based?
In Bannockburn, on the south side of Stirling. Almost everything in this gallery was photographed within a few miles of home.
Can you photograph my home or business in Stirling?
Yes. Fly Caledonia is CAA registered and insured to £5 million, and works across Stirling and central Scotland. See drone photography in Stirling.
Can these photographs be used in a publication or on a website?
Yes, get in touch with where and how you would like to use one and it will be priced for that use.
More galleries: The Kelpies & the Falkirk Canals · Glencoe & Rannoch Moor · Panoramic Scotland · Scotland
Get a quote
A print of one of these, or your own place shot the same way.
Say which photograph, or where you would want me to fly. Prints are mounted or framed to suit, and a commission gets a written price first.
- CAA registered operator, £5m public liability
- A written quote before anything is booked
- Edited files back within a week
- Anywhere in Scotland, from Bannockburn
Commissions
Got something worth seeing from above?
Property, hotels, venues, construction, events, or a stretch of Scotland you want done properly. Tell me what you have in mind and I will tell you what it costs.