STIRLING, royal, municipal and police burgh, parish, river port and county town of Stirlingshire, Scotland. Pop. (1931), 22,593. It is finely situated on the right bank of the Forth, 39i m. N.W. of Edinburgh and 291 m. N.E. of Glasgow, being served by the L.N.E. and L.M.S. railways. The old town occupies the slopes of a basaltic hill (420 ft. above the sea) terminating on the north and west in a precipice. The modern quarters have been laid out on the level ground at the base, especially towards the south. Remains of a town wall exist at the south end of the Black walk. Formerly there were two main entrances—the South port and the "auld brig" over the Forth to the north, a high-pitched structure of four arches, now used only by foot-passengers. It dates from the end of the 14th century and was once literally "the key to the Highlands." Just below it is the bridge erected in 1829 from designs by Robert Stevenson, and below this again the railway viaduct. The castle crowning the hill is of unknown age, but from the time that Alexander I. died within its walls in 1124 till the union of the crowns in 1603 it was intimately associated with the fortunes of the Scottish monarchs. It is approached from the esplanade, on which stands a colossal statue of Robert Bruce. The main gateway, built by James III., gives access to the lower and then to the upper square, on the south side of which stands the palace, begun by James V. (1540) and completed by Mary of Guise. The east side of the quadrangle is occupied by the parliament house, a Gothic building of the time of James III., now used as a barrack-room and stores. On the north side of the square is the chapel royal, founded by Alex ander I., rebuilt in the z 5th century and again in 1594 by James VI. (who was christened in it), and afterwards converted into an armoury and finally a store-room. Below it is Gowan hill, and beyond this the Mote or Heading hill, on which Murdoch Stuart, 2nd duke of Albany, his two sons, and his father-in-law the earl of Lennox, were beheaded in 1425. In the plain to the south west were the King's gardens, now under grass, with an octagonal turf-covered mound called the King's Knot in the centre. Farther south lies the King's park. On a hill of lower elevation than the castle and separated from the esplanade by a depression styled the Valley—the tilting-ground of former times—a cemetery has been laid out. Here is the Virgin Martyrs' Memorial, in mem ory of Margaret Maclachlan and Margaret Wilson, who were drowned by the rising tide in Wigtown bay for their fidelity to the Covenant (1685) ; the large pyramid to the memory of the Covenanters, and the Ladies' rock, from which ladies viewed the jousts in the Valley. Adjoining the cemetery on the south
is the parish church, portions of which may have formed part of the first church, founded by David I. Since the Reformation it has been divided into two churches. The choir (the East church) was added in 1494 by James IV., and the apse a few years later. At the west stands the stately battlemented square tower. The nave (the West church) is a transition between Romanesque and Gothic, with pointed windows. The crow stepped Gothic gable of the south transept affords the main en trance to both churches. The choir is in the Decorated and Perpendicular styles. Within its walls Mary Queen of Scots was crowned in 1543, when nine months old, and in the same year the earl of Arran, regent of Scotland, abjured Protestantism; in 1544 an assembly of nobles appointed Mary of Guise queen regent; on July 29, 1567, James VI. was crowned, John Knox preaching the sermon, and in Aug. 1571 and June 1578 the general assembly of the Church of Scotland met. James Guthrie (1612 1661), the martyr, and Ebenezer Erskine (168o-1794), founder of the Scottish Secession Church, were two of the most distin guished ministers. To the south-west of the church is Cowane's Hospital, founded in 1639 by John Cowane, dean of gild, and now used as a gildhall. Adjoining it is the military prison. Near the principal entrance to the esplanade stands Argyll's Lodging, erected about 1630 by the 1st earl of Stirling. On his death in 1640 it passed to the 1st marquess of Argyll and is now a military hospital. Broad street contains Mar's Work, the palace built by John Erskine, 1st (or 6th) earl of 'Mar, about 1570, according to tradition, out of the stones of Cambuskenneth Abbey ; the old town house, erected in 1701 to replace that in which John Hamil ton, the last Roman Catholic archbishop of St. Andrews, was hanged for alleged complicity in the murders of Darnley and the regent Moray; the town cross, restored in 1891, and the house which was, as a mural tablet says, the "nursery of James VI. and his son Prince Henry." The Smith institute, founded in 1873 by Thomas Stewart Smith, an artist, contains a picture gallery, museum and reading-room. Woollen spinning and manu factures are the staple industry, and iron-founding, carriage-build ing and agricultural implement-making are also carried on, in addi tion to furniture factories, cooperage and rubber works. There is some shipping from the small harbour, which is accessible only at high water.