Level iv publications
The publications listed below are available for download and viewing with Adobe® Acrobat® Reader 8 (or later). Simply click on the button next to the report you wish to access to open it in your browser, or right-click and choose 'save as' to save the file to your computer.
All content on this site is subject to copyright terms and conditions, please take a moment to familiarise yourself with these.
Plans of the palace
A separate document giving detailed plans of the Vaults level, Principal Level, Mezzanine Level, Upper Level, Attic Level and Roof Level. It also includes periodised plans of the Vaults Level, Principal Level and Upper Level. This is useful reference whilst reading many of the reports below, and is available to download via the link below.
Download size: 1 MB
The history & archaeology of stirling castle palace
by dennis gallagher & gordon ewart
The complex history of Stirling Castle is described not only in historical documents but through its buildings. The programme of excavation, survey and research which has been completed at Stirling Castle palace, has endeavoured to synthesise historical evidence with the findings of an exhaustive archaeological standing building survey. The results of this research are presented as a narrative account which is based on the archaeological sequence as revealed in the various episodes of construction, demolition and repair completed on this royal fortress from the […]
Download size: 9.6 MB
King of the castle: stirling castle's landscape setting
by john harrison
The report is an attempt to make sense of the relationship between one hill (Stirling Castle Rock), its surroundings, some monarchs and the monarchs’ successors as controllers of the hill and the landscape, successors who include the British army and (more recently) Historic Scotland, Stirling Golf Club and ‘the tourist industry’. The report builds on earlier work but time has precluded any deep examination of the medieval evidence beyond what is already published. And it has also limited examination of the period since about 1900 – though I comment on some very […]
Download size: 3.2 MB
Ladies and waiting
by john harrison
This report is provides a detailed study of Marie de Guise at Stirling up to 1550, when she went to France, and the political, social and local context. The primary argument will be that de Guise, like other royal and quasi-royal figures, used her household politically, indeed that it was an essential instrument in her growing authority within Scotland and so to her appointment as regent in 1554. Secondly, household is presented in the context of other aspects of Scots and European courts of the 16th century, particularly in relation to […]
Download size: 1 MB
People, place and process: the royal court at stirling
by john harrison
This Report discusses various aspects of the Scots royal court in the 16th Century. It concentrates on the period between April 1542 and July 1543 but, in order to present a rounded view and cover some of the more general topics adequately, it considers information from a wider time-span. That period has been chosen for the present project mainly because, it is thought, at that time the work on the Palace at Stirling, carried out for James V, had been completed but was still fresh. But the choice does give some problems from the […]
Download size: 1.5 MB
Want all the Level IV publications?
All the Level IV publications can be downloaded in a single, self-extracting compressed archive using the link below. This archive also contains plans of both the castle and palace.
Download size: 16.7 MB
