The annual potato planting......

.... by the students went ahead today at Camphill Blair Drummond and I forgot to take my camera to work.

I settled on Old Stirling as an alternative.

This picture is looking toward the old town, the castle is just out of view to the left.

The tower on the left belongs to The Church of the Holy Rude, one of Scotlands finest medieval churches and the second oldest building in Stirling, after the castle. The infant King James VI was crowned in the church in 1567.

Next to the church is Cowane's Hospital built between 1637 and 1650 as an almshouse for 'decayed members of the Guild of Merchants'. In it's time it has been used as a Guildhouse, Schoolhouse, and a hospital.

On the right is the Old Town Jail, a model Victorian prison. Used as a military prison from 1888 to 1935 it is now a visitor atraction.

The flat topped grassy mounds in the foreground is the 'King's Knot', all that remains of the original formal castle gardens. Designed for Charles 1 in 1628 it was originally planted with trees in a parterre style. It is known locally as the 'Cup and Saucer'.