The Back Walk and the Top of Town: a loop round the old walls

The quickest way from the station to the castle is up the shopping streets. The best way is the Back Walk, a path along the line of the old town wall that the town built in stages between 1724 and 1791. Stirling City Heritage Trust says William Edmonstone of Cumbuswallace paid for it. It takes you up the side of the crag, gets you to the castle esplanade, and with a detour over Gowan Hill gives you a loop that comes back down through the Top of Town.

Start at the wolf

The path starts opposite the Central Library on Corn Exchange Road, a short walk from the station, and the trust says a timber carving of a wolf marks it. The wolf is an old Stirling emblem, from a legend that a wolf's cry warned a sentry of a Viking attack in time. The City Walls pub is beside the path at the bottom; The Courier describes it as housed in the 16th-century defences.

Along the wall

From here the path follows the outline of the old wall uphill. The trust notes that the trees along it were kept short while the castle was a barracks, for security, and grew back after the army left in the 1960s. You pass below the Church of the Holy Rude and come out by the Old Town Cemetery, under the castle rock. The esplanade and the castle gate are just above.

If you are going into the castle, this is the place to do it. Historic Environment Scotland opens it at 9:30 every day and charges less for tickets bought online; our castle guide covers prices and hours.

Round Gowan Hill to the Beheading Stone

Behind the castle is Gowan Hill, which the trust says was once known as the Heidden Hill. The Beheading Stone is up here. A Ramblers group walk follows the same ground: just before the esplanade it bears right along Upper Castle Hill, turns into Crofthead Road and goes up to Gowanhill and Mote Hill to see the stone, then returns along the Gowanhill paths, skirting the rear of the castle, to come out at the cemetery. You can do the same, or, as the trust suggests, carry on down from Gowan Hill to the riverside at Bridgehaugh and walk across the Old Bridge.

Detour: the Old Bridge

The Old Bridge was built on rubble foundations around 1500, according to Wikipedia, and replaced the wooden bridges that stood here before it, including the one where the Scots under Andrew Moray and William Wallace won the Battle of Stirling Bridge in 1297. One arch was destroyed in 1745 to slow the Jacobite army and rebuilt in 1749. From our map pins, the bridge is about 800 metres north-east of the castle and about 1.6 km south-west of the Wallace Monument on the Abbey Craig, so it is the natural link if you are heading for the Monument next.

Down through the Top of Town

If you came back round to the castle, walk down rather than retracing the Back Walk. From the esplanade, Castle Wynd passes Argyll's Lodging, and St Mary's Wynd drops away toward the Settle Inn. Broad Street and St John Street hold Hermann's, the old county jail, now Stirling Old Town Jail with live tours every half hour, Cowane's Hospital and the Holy Rude, all within a few minutes of each other. Cowane's Hospital, which its trust says was established in 1637, has a coffee shop open from 10:00 to 16:00 every day.

How far, how long

No source we found measures the loop. Adding up straight lines between the places on our trail map gives about 3 km for the Back Walk, castle, Gowan Hill and the walk back down, so the real distance is a little more. It is uphill to the castle, which HES describes as sitting up a steep hill, and the castle approach is cobbled. Take shoes with some grip.

A note on the Smith

If the weather turns, the Stirling Smith Art Gallery and Museum on Dumbarton Road is about 500 metres from the start of the Back Walk and free to enter. Its own site gives the hours as Tuesday to Saturday 10:30 to 17:00 and Sunday 14:00 to 17:00. Guinness World Records lists the Smith as home to the world's oldest football, found at the castle you have just walked round.