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This project was born from work, humility and experience in order to make people who visit Scotland feel part of its history and its legends.

If you would like an experience tailored to you, we offer personalized packages with a variety of options. You can choose the duration of the tour, focus on specific aspects of the city's history, and explore the locations that are of interest to you.

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**Stirling** was one of Scotland's three most important strongholds. A city that has witnessed countless battles and great feats, but if anything is born from its very heart, it is the name of one of the country's most important heroes: **William Wallace**.



Stirling Old Town

Stirling

Guided tours in Stirling

We will introduce you to the history of this medieval city, which is more than 3000 years old. We will walk through its most picturesque streets, such as the Royal Mile, Chambers Street or Victoria Street. Learn about the alleys where people lived in the 17th century. We will tell you how they died during the Black Death and about the beaked doctors who tried to cure them. Exciting stories await you!


Royal_mile_blog.jpg

Edinburgh

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**Glasgow** is currently one of the most visited cities in the United Kingdom and not many decades ago it was one of the most important cities of the Industrial Revolution, although today only remnants of that past remain.


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Glasgow

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It has always been said that battles are told from the perspective of the winning side, and the [battles of Bannockburn](https://somosescocia.com/blog/batalla-de-bannockburn) and [Stirling Bridge](https://scotlandcitytours.com/blog/Battle-of-Stirling-Bridge) can be counted among those. But, in order to provide some background, we need to go back a few years. More precisely, to the year 1286, when **king Alexander III** died in a horse riding accident. The worst thing about this is not that the king of Scotland had died, but the fact that his son and heir had passed away about two years before that. The next one in the succession line to the throne was one of his granddaughters, Margaret, the Maid of Norway; however, during the journey from Norway to Scotland to take the crown as queen, she would also perish.

![Lerwick Town Hall stained glass window depicting “Margaret, queen of Scotland and daughter of Norway”.jpg](https://somosescocia.lon1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/strapi/Lerwick_Town_Hall_stained_glass_window_depicting_Margaret_queen_of_Scotland_and_daughter_of_Norway_12a3a25bf9.jpg)
_Stained glass in the town hall of Lerwick (Shetland, Scotland). “Margaret, queen of Scotland and Maid of Norway”"_

After this misfortune, Scottish noblemen would fight for the throne, since Alexander III had no further heirs. In 1292, **John Balliol** would be elected to be the **new king of Scotland**, cherry-picked by Edward I of England. Since the noblemen did not seem able to reach an agreement, they sought the assistance of the English king to make a decision. That is how Balliol was chosen because he was the weakest of all candidates, one that Edward could rule over and treat as a vassal, and so Scotland fell under the domain of its archenemy. But John I of Scotland would turn out to be smarter than he seemed, and thus he signed an alliance with France, **The Auld Alliance**, in order to stand up to England. This would cost John Balliol the throne, since he would be ousted four years after his crowning by the very English.

![john balliol rey de Escocia.jpg](https://somosescocia.lon1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/strapi/john_balliol_rey_de_Escocia_7cb1e76ef0.jpg)
_John Balliol, king of Scotland (source: Pinterest)_

The following years would be quite complicated, since Scotland was still smothered by the English yoke. In 1297, **William Wallace and Andrew Moray** would lead an army of 2 500 farmers and peasants into a battle against 10 000 English soldiers in the [Battle of Stirling Bridge](https://scotlandcitytours.com/blog/Battle-of-Stirling-Bridge). This battle would be won by the Scots. In this way, Wallace would embody the hope to retrieve his country’s independence, but he ran away to France after losing the **Battle of Falkirk in 1298** and, just a few years later, he would return to Scotland, where he was betrayed, delivered to the English, and tortured to death.

![Batalla del Puente de Stirling.jpg](https://somosescocia.lon1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/strapi/Batalla_del_Puente_de_Stirling_4368805716.jpg)
_<center>Battle of Stirling Bridge</center>_


**Robert the Bruce** picks up Wallace’s lead as **Guardian of Scotland**. In the year 1306 he was crowned as king, but he suffered several defeats owing to the brutality of the English, during which his army was severely decimated, and thus he was forced to flee as an outlaw. He sought refuge in a cave in Rathlin Island, in the north of Ireland. The legend says that, during his confinement, Bruce took notice of a very **persevering spider**, and he watched how it weaved its web over and over again, to no avail. It is said that this inspired him to keep on fighting against the English. Six times did the wind blow the spider’s cobweb away, six times it failed, the same number of battles that he had lost. But it did not give up and, on the seventh try, the spider succeeded in weaving a cobweb that not even the wind could tear down. If the spider had risen victorious on its seventh attempt, why could he not do the same?

In **1307, Robert the Bruce would return to Scotland** and, this time around, luck would be on his side. In that very same year, the **English king, Edward I, would die**. The heir to the throne, Edward II, was not interested in Scotland the same way his father was. Taking advantage of this, Bruce took the lead and, throughout the years to come, he would gradually begin to regain control of his country. **He started to win back castles, and he destroyed them** so that the English could never make any use of them again.

Seven years after returning from his exile, in **1314, Robert the Bruce had reconquered nearly all of Scotland.** Except for Stirling Castle, the most strategic of all, which was still in the hands of the English. Edward II of England had to teach those Scots a lesson; he departed to the north with 20 000 infantry soldiers and 3 000 knights, where he would be awaited by 7 000 brave soldiers along with their king, **Robert I of Scotland**, who led the way.

What happened during this battle would be the end of English dominion, since Robert the Bruce would win a [battle that lasted for two days](https://somosescocia.com/blog/batalla-de-bannockburn), July 23 and 24 of year 1314, thanks to a poor management of the battle strategy on the English side, and a wonderful layout and fighting as a single block on the Scottish side. 

![bannockburn.jpg](https://somosescocia.lon1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/strapi/bannockburn_f0e4474916.jpg)
_Battle of Bannockburn, 1314, on the second day, the Earl of Gloucester charging against Edward Bruce’s schiltron. Author: Mark Churms._

Politically speaking, the **de facto independence of Scotland had been won**, and the **ruling of Robert I of Scotland** had been consolidated. On April 6, 1320, the **Declaration of Arbroath** was sent to Pope John XXII, in which Scotland demanded to be an independent and sovereign state, although independence would not be recognized until 1328.

![declaración de Arbroth.jpg](https://somosescocia.lon1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/strapi/declaracion_de_Arbroth_a82d89acd2.jpg)
_Declaration of Arbroath._

**“As long as one hundred Scots remain alive, we will never, under any condition, be submitted to the English domain. For it is not for glory, nor riches, nor honor that we are fighting for, but for freedom itself, which no honest man would sacrifice but at the cost of his own life.”**

 The humble part about this feat is that the history of Scotland is marked by **the legend of a tiny spider**.

Wars of Scottish Independence

Stirling, besides being important due to its geographical location in the center of Scotland, is also renowned for its battles.