Oh, The Towering Feeling
So I finally got the children certified. It cost me a quid, mind you. You see, during this half-term holiday we鈥檙e on a secret mission to Alloa (more of which tomorrow) and it involves an overnight stay in a motel just outside Bannockburn. This part of Scotland is just reeking with history, of course, and being a typical Dad, I couldn鈥檛 miss the opportunity for a bit of an educational detour. I suggested that we pay a visit to the and learn about Scotland's greatest hero. Plus, if you climb all 248 steps to the top you can buy a 50 pence certificate to prove it. They even stamp it for you so it鈥檚 official.
鈥淗ow come there鈥檚 a monument for Wallace, 鈥 quipped my ten year old son, 鈥渂ut nothing for Gromit.鈥 Terrible joke鈥 can鈥檛 think where he got his warped sense of humour.
Anyway we scudded down the A9 and, just after Dunblane, we caught out first glimpse of the monument towering over the autumn landscape like a piece of Gothic scenery from a Hammer Horror.
鈥淚t doesn鈥檛 look too big, 鈥 said Zed-son. I made a mental note to explain the concept of distance and perspective to him, but he had changed his tune by the time we made it to the visitor centre car park.
鈥淒o we have to go all the way to the top?鈥
I didn鈥檛 need to answer. He knew that we would by the way I threw my head back and cackled for five minutes. By that time a little mini bus had arrived which takes visitors from the car park to the door of the monument itself. This seems like a wee bit of a cheat, but believe me, you need to conserve your puff for the spiral stairway inside.
Then we had another piece of luck. According to the brochure: 鈥淔rom April to September The Monument is the setting for regular live performances by costumed actors bring Sir William Wallace and the characters of his time to life.鈥 This being October, we didn鈥檛 have to see any of that. Yipee!
There are five levels to the monument. The ground floor reception area and coffee shop leads up to the first floor exhibition which gives where a simple audio-visual display gives you the highlights of Wallace鈥檚 life and death. The next floor contains marble busts of Scottish historical heroes with a chance to vote for modern-day heroes such as Jock Stein and Billy Connoly.
The third floor was my favourite. It tells the story of the monument鈥檚 design and construction and the various squabbles that surrounded it. In the mid nineteenth century, both Glasgow and Edinburgh were vying to be the location for the monument. The present site, high in the hills above Stirling, was a bit of a political compromise.
Building the thing was not without danger. Apparently the whole structure is held together by a capstone right and the crown of the tower. But that capstone had to be placed in exactly the right spot by a stone mason with a sense of balance and an eye for detail. So they asked for a volunteers but suggested that married men with families to provide for might want to give this particular job a miss. Talk about a hard sell!
Having made it all the way to the viewing platform underneath the Crown, I could see that you鈥檇 need a head for heights or a really extreme game of double-dare to want to work up there. The views are spectacular and I urge everyone to drop what they鈥檙e doing this very minute and make your way to The Monument immediately. I don鈥檛 care if it is after Midnight. Bring a torch.
It really is wonderful. You can see the snaking pattern of the River Forth, the Trossachs, Ben Lomond and right into people鈥檚 back gardens (bring binoculars). But you have to be a little bit of a Braveheart to make the climb.
Which, when you come to think of it, is something even William Wallace never did.
To read comments on this post, click here