I hope you’ll forgive an advert this week? One of the boards I’m on is the Forth Naturalist and Historian, a wonderful little Stirling charity.
As the name says we try to cover everything, from populations of sticky catch flies to the history of the Kings Knott.
We host an annual publication and a conference.
If you love Stirling you should really look us up.
Now of course, Stirling is 900 years old and this forms the inspiration for this year’s conference: three days exploring our fantastic history on the 1st to 3rd November at the University.
We have an amazing array of star speakers…including me!
And you are all invited.
I’m talking about the first bridge over the Forth and who built it.
Now to let you into a secret I think it was David I.
But during his dad’s reign (Malcolm III) the Forth was the frontier and there was no way you wanted a bridge as it would make invasion easier….remember William the Conqueror came this way in 1072.
So David could only build it if Stirling was no longer on the frontier which seemed to have happened in either his dad’s or elder brothers’ reigns (Edgar and Alexander I).
This of course was the most incredible land grab in Scottish history.
We shifted our border from the Forth to the Tweed…wow!
This allowed David to create Stirling Burgh, found the Church of the Holy Rude, Cambuskenneth Abbey, the High School and I think the bridge.
Our economy boomed through the 12th century.
Of course that bridge would be burnt down at the Battle of Stirling Bridge but its replacement by James IVth was the biggest bridge in Scotland and remains our best preserved medieval bridge!
Hope to see you at the conference.