Stirling EuroWalk 1 part 2- Top of the town- Mar's Wark/ Argyle's lodge and more

 

Tollbooth viewed between the stepped gables that are now embedded in Scots vernacular architecture, but originally came from the Low Countries. These are now in Scottish buildings because of trading connections

Walking down from the castle you come to Argyle's lodgings: built in two phases, 1630s and 1670s.  The first phase is modelled on the French townhouses called 'hôtels' which are set back from the street at the end of large courtyard behind a wall.  The gateway, dating to the 1670s, was directly modelled on an example published in Alessandro Francini's Livre d'Architecture, published in Paris in 1631, but translated into English in 1669.  Francini and his brother, Tommaso, were Florentine hydraulic engineers and garden designers - their patron was Marie de' Medici, mother of King Louis XIII of France (of Cardinal Richelieu and 3 Musketeers fame).

The next stop on our walk is Mar’s Wark the townhouse of John Erskine, Earl of Mar, a moderate Protestant during the tumultuous years of the Scottish Reformation. Among the many interesting statuettes/gargoyles/heraldic panels on the façade is a relief perhaps of 'Jeannie Dark' - Joan of Arc - being burned at the stake.  The building dates to 1570 and some suggest that the statuette is there because Joan died for her beliefs, but the Earl may have included the image because his ancestor fought with the Scots contingent alongside the French in the Hundred Years War. Can you spot her?

From here you also see across the road Hermann's restaurant - the result of a Stirling girl meeting an Austrian catering student-Hermann-when on work placement there ( ah-the freedom of movement we lost with Brexit). It was initially run as a Scottish-Austrian restaurant at the Tollbooth down the street (prior to the redevelopment of this) when it moved to its current location.