Inspire your learners with a visit to Stirling Castle

A trip to Stirling Castle is a great way to immerse your learners in the lives and events of the past.

Learning and community groups are warmly welcome to make the most of the castle as a place for creativity, health, wellbeing and learning.

Organising your group's learning visit

We offer free learning visits for groups with an educational or wellbeing remit.

As we operate within daily visitor capacities at the site, availability can sometimes be limited.

For requests for free learning group visits to Stirling Castle, please fill in our booking enquiry form.

Please check the Historic Environment Scotland website for eligibility criteria for free learning visits, information about the booking process and an overview of our popular schools travel subsidy.

Community projects

We enable local community learning and development where possible, and support groups with additional needs.

Please contact our Learning Officer on kirsten.wood@hes.scot to discuss any project ideas.

Contact us

If you have any queries, please contact our Learning Support team on learning@hes.scot.

Castle Secrets

It is widely rumoured that James V would swap his riches for rags and sneak out of the castle to the old town of Stirling where he would mingle with his subjects posing as the guid man of Ballengeigh.

Castle Secrets

Secret binary code was discovered on one of the Stirling Heads that turned out to be musical notes to a long lost requiem from the 16th Century. Visitors can hear the music in the royal palace today.

Castle Secrets

The phrase “pushing the boat out” is thought to have been coined in relation to the extravagant celebrations held at the castle for Prince Henry’s baptism in 1594 when a full-size boat featuring live mermaids and shooting cannons was used to serve the fish course.

Castle Secrets

Nine skeletons dating from 1200-1400s were unearthed in a long-lost royal chapel in 2008. It is thought they must have been people of stature to have been buried within the castle. Visitors can come face to face with 2 of the skeletons in the castle exhibition.

Castle Secrets

Research carried out in 2011 revealed that King Arthur’s round table may well have been hidden beneath the historic King’s Knot that sits below the castle. Writers including John Barbour and Sir David Lindsay have linked the landmark to the legend of King Arthur for more than six centuries.

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Did You Know?

The oldest football in the world was found in the Palace at Stirling Castle.

There are three walnut trees in the castle.

The Palace took four years to build and was built on top of other buildings as there wasn’t enough space for it.

Mary Queen of Scots played football, tennis and golf.

There is a spell to protect the castle from witches carved into one of the doors in the Palace.

Mary Queen of Scots became queen when she was only 6 days old.

The oldest building in the castle today dates from 1381.

After the Battle of Bannockburn Robert the Bruce destroyed Stirling Castle to stop it falling into English hands.

The statues of the lions and unicorns on the top of the Great Hall weigh ¾ of a tonne each.

A man called John Damian tried to fly from the castle with homemade wings in 1507. It didn't work!

There are three wells in Stirling Castle and two still have water in them.

Football was banned by James I in 1429.

Most medieval battles were over in a few hours, some lasted only 20 minutes! The battle of Bannockburn in 1314 lasted for two days (but they didn’t fight all the time).

The castle has two holly trees. These trees are male and female and only the lower leaves are spiky to stop animals eating them - the leaves further up the tree are smooth.

Children working as servants in the castle were paid 2 loaves of bread and 8 pints of ale a day. They also received a wage of £1 a year which was paid on 22 November.

After the Battle of Stirling Bridge in 1297 William Wallace used the skin of a dead English Lord to make himself a belt and a sword holder.

There is a hole in the wall of the Douglas Gardens that is reputed to have been made so a young Mary Queen of Scots could look at the view.

The black posts, called bollards, in the castle are actually small cannons stuck into the ground with their barrels blocked off.

When James V married Mary of Guise he wasn't even at the wedding! He sent someone else to stand in for him.