Escaping From Jail In Stirling
During our first trip to Edinburgh in 2011, we stopped at Stirling during an excursion we did. In fact, we did many excursions on that trip. We were excited to do at least one excursion with the girls, to show them other areas of Scotland. We started to second-guess that when we started looking at prices for the excursions. They were staggeringly expensive for a family of four!
We decided to skip them and do it ourselves! We looked into a lot of options one evening in our hotel room to find an affordable way to get out and see some other areas. We were considering renting a car, taking trains, or taking buses. We considered a variety of areas, including lochs, East Lothians, Stirling, and further up north in Scotland. But the main place we kept coming back to was Stirling.
In the end, that’s exactly what we did. We went to the train station and bought tickets to Stirling. We got there and started walking through the cute town, with the aim of making our way to the castle. Along the way, I saw an old prison and wanted to take a detour up to see it. Well, if it wasn’t just the most gorgeous building! We went inside and inquired about tickets to tour the place. But we also noticed they had escape room games! Well, our family loves games of all types, but escape rooms are among our favourites! The second the girls heard there were escape rooms, they were beyond excited! So was I, to be honest. What could be more unique a setting than playing an escape room in an old jail cell? We booked tickets for later in the day, as we had booked tickets for a set time for the castle.
We continued along the street up to the castle, stopping for a quick sandwich at a cheap spot recommended by the employee at the jail to fortify us for our visit. Again, trust the locals! We then went into the castle and spent almost four hours exploring every nook and cranny. We could have spent longer there, but we needed to get back for the escape room.
This castle was utterly amazing. There was so much to see and learn here. We learned about Scottish royal history, important battles in the area, musical instruments that were used in the distant past, how they used to create dyes to dye clothes and where in the world all the dyes were made and came from, some medical history, and military history. We learned about the architectural styles as the various buildings here were built at different times, by different kings, for different purposes, and in different styles. We learned about court life, including how many different rooms and levels there were for people to try to gain access to speak with kings and queens. We learned about gunpowder storage – exploring the way they needed to design and build these non-flammable, stone buildings to withstand pressure from explosions and minimize the damage to any surrounding buildings, people, or areas. We learned all about what foods they ate in history, what was local to the area, how the kitchens worked, how food was cooked and prepared, how it was served, etc. The girls were utterly fascinated by these kitchen areas.
I think most interesting to all of us was learning about tapestry making. There was a display with various tapestries, tapestry samples, and three separate videos explaining how tapestry is made and the stories told by some of the most important ones at Stirling (the unicorn story, where the unicorn is hunted and ultimately killed, before resurrecting in a beautiful garden setting, chained to a tree. The religious symbology with Jesus’ crucifixion should be obvious, but also is a bit of a love story, as well). It was so fascinating to all of us, but especially the girls who adore all things crafting and handwork.
In addition to all the things we learned along our journey through the various areas were our walks through gorgeous gardens and along walls overlooking stunning views out to the adjacent area. I would have been perfectly content to throw down a blanket on the beautiful grassy area and read a book or have a picnic lunch if I were living at that castle in the past! We also saw the William Wallace monument, though none of us were overly excited by that bit.
This castle was so impressive and has been incredibly important throughout Scottish history given its location. It separates the highlands from the lowlands and was a key access route between these two areas due to the river in this area. It was amazing to be able to spend as much time as we wanted exploring all the little areas here.
Afterwards, we made our way to the jail to complete the escape room. We had a live person sitting in the room with us since they have no cameras or audio to be able to watch or communicate with you due to the historic nature of this old jail building. It was a bit odd at first, but she just sat there, reading her book and leaving us to it, being as unobtrusive as possible, so that we mostly forgot she was there. We are happy to report that we needed almost no hints/clues, and managed to escape from jail in 44 minutes and 19 seconds!
After a delicious dinner at a local pub, we hopped the train back to Edinburgh. We loved our day out in Stirling and are so glad we decided to do it on our own for a fraction of the price of doing a formal excursion, where we also had the freedom to explore in depth at will, rather than having limited time in this amazing town.