The Brig And Rock Declaimers
The Story of Stirling, as told from the voices of
its poets and minstrels throughout the ages
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| Stirling Observer article 31/05/2017 |
It was once proclaimed that: "Whosoever owns Stirling, owns all of Scotland".
So now in 2017, our Year of Heritage, here are two hundred works of poetry or song from the voices of seventy two of the BARDs from or of Stirling, traditional and contemporary, on the 720th anniversary of the most famous battle of the bridge, when the armies of Wallace and Moray defeated and routed an English army many times its own size. This one event alone is not only depicted by at least seven different BARDs in epic verse, but also alluded to in other works in this book. Likewise the battles of Bannockburn, Sauchieburn, Airth and more, as well as the multiple sieges of The Rock or Castle, are also depicted in traditional rhyming narrative.
Besides all of this, this anthology contains shorter poems and songs from King, Queen, priest and punter alike, of love, landscape, wonder, faith, protest, emigration, grief, joy, riches and poverty. Such are here expressed in salutation, invocation, comic verse, parody, satire, children's ditty and more. All are constructed in either traditional or modern metres, expressed in standard English as well as the vernacular, springing out of the martial ages right through the age of innovation and Victoriana, to the present day, telling the story of what is now 'The Royal Burgh and City of Stirling'.
In ancient times, through the war-like ages, Stirling, home to the only bridge on mainland Scotland from south to north, was hence more battle-torn or conflict-scarred than any other part of the country. The Auld Brig, disputed over by Romans, Britains, Northumbrians, Gales, Picts, Scots and Englishmen has left us with a great wealth of epic battle-verse as also have nearby battle-fields of Bannockburn, Sauchieburn, Airth and Sheriffmuir.
It is believed that the bridge was erected here in the 9th century by two Northumbrian princes who invaded Scotland, and beat the Scots in battle. On the bridge a cross was erected bearing the rhyming inscription below:
"I am free to marche, as passangers may ken
To Scottis, to Britons, and to Inglismen”
At the Castle of Stirling, king Osbright, it is said, caused the first money to be minted, hence the name: Sterling, although etymologically the name is derived more commonly from the older spellings of: Strivlen, Strevlin, Strevlyn, Strevelyn, Strevlina, Strevline, Sruighlea (Gaelic), Strila etc meaning: The Lay (or Place) of Strife. Both interpretations certainly reflect the town and district's history.
Before the nineteenth century, the eye of the eagle would have seen The Carse, as a massive swamp below sea-level extending from Clackmannan in the east, to Drymen in the west, from the Abbey Crag and the Ochils in the north, to the River Forth to the south. Therefore the nation would have appeared as two separte islands or continents, the north being known by the Romans as Caledonia. The only road therefore immediately adjoining north of the bridge heading north was The Causeway, (now Causwayhead Road). Until the river was drudged by the Moss-Lairds in the nineteenth century, raising the bed of the river two to three-fold, Stirling served the nation as a very important international port with ships coming up the river from major European trading ports, whose archtecture has left its imprint on The Top o' the Toon's most ancient builldings.
Immediately to the south, towering over the wee brig was Stirling's ancient Castle, or Rock and Sill. This was the Brooch that clasped the Highland with the lowlands, making it Scotland's most strategically important fort.
Throughout the ages war and dispute left its imprint not only on the landscape but in the DNA of its native versifiers and word-smiths, from generation to generation, from the day when King Arthur of the Britons held his court and Round-Table at the King's Knot just below and behind the castle, through the Wars of Scottish Independence, right through the glorious days of the Stewart Dynasty, making Stirling not only the centre for the arts and heroic martial exploit, but also the administrative capital of the ancient kingdom.
After the Jacobite Rising of 1715, the ancient fort being ruled by the Duke of Argyll, heirs and successors, was to become the nation's main filtering point for the training of the Highland regiments throughout the age of the Empire concluding in the Aiden campaign of 1967, the Argyll and Sutherland Museum in the Castle laying testimony to this. Industrial unrest resulted in the national miners' strike of 1984, which began in Stirling's Polmaise colliery.
So now in 2017, our Year of Heritage, here are two hundred works of poetry or song from the voices of seventy two of the BARDs from or of Stirling, traditional and contemporary, on the 720th anniversary of the most famous battle of the bridge, when the armies of Wallace and Moray defeated and routed an English army many times its own size. This one event alone is not only depicted by at least seven different BARDs in epic verse, but also alluded to in other works in this book. Likewise the battles of Bannockburn, Sauchieburn, Airth and more, as well as the multiple sieges of The Rock or Castle, are also depicted in traditional rhyming narrative.
Besides all of this, this anthology contains shorter poems and songs from King, Queen, priest and punter alike, of love, landscape, wonder, faith, protest, emigration, grief, joy, riches and poverty. Such are here expressed in salutation, invocation, comic verse, parody, satire, children's ditty and more. All are constructed in either traditional or modern metres, expressed in standard English as well as the vernacular, springing out of the martial ages right through the age of innovation and Victoriana, to the present day, telling the story of what is now 'The Royal Burgh and City of Stirling'.
In ancient times, through the war-like ages, Stirling, home to the only bridge on mainland Scotland from south to north, was hence more battle-torn or conflict-scarred than any other part of the country. The Auld Brig, disputed over by Romans, Britains, Northumbrians, Gales, Picts, Scots and Englishmen has left us with a great wealth of epic battle-verse as also have nearby battle-fields of Bannockburn, Sauchieburn, Airth and Sheriffmuir.
It is believed that the bridge was erected here in the 9th century by two Northumbrian princes who invaded Scotland, and beat the Scots in battle. On the bridge a cross was erected bearing the rhyming inscription below:
"I am free to marche, as passangers may ken
To Scottis, to Britons, and to Inglismen”
At the Castle of Stirling, king Osbright, it is said, caused the first money to be minted, hence the name: Sterling, although etymologically the name is derived more commonly from the older spellings of: Strivlen, Strevlin, Strevlyn, Strevelyn, Strevlina, Strevline, Sruighlea (Gaelic), Strila etc meaning: The Lay (or Place) of Strife. Both interpretations certainly reflect the town and district's history.
Before the nineteenth century, the eye of the eagle would have seen The Carse, as a massive swamp below sea-level extending from Clackmannan in the east, to Drymen in the west, from the Abbey Crag and the Ochils in the north, to the River Forth to the south. Therefore the nation would have appeared as two separte islands or continents, the north being known by the Romans as Caledonia. The only road therefore immediately adjoining north of the bridge heading north was The Causeway, (now Causwayhead Road). Until the river was drudged by the Moss-Lairds in the nineteenth century, raising the bed of the river two to three-fold, Stirling served the nation as a very important international port with ships coming up the river from major European trading ports, whose archtecture has left its imprint on The Top o' the Toon's most ancient builldings.
Immediately to the south, towering over the wee brig was Stirling's ancient Castle, or Rock and Sill. This was the Brooch that clasped the Highland with the lowlands, making it Scotland's most strategically important fort.
Throughout the ages war and dispute left its imprint not only on the landscape but in the DNA of its native versifiers and word-smiths, from generation to generation, from the day when King Arthur of the Britons held his court and Round-Table at the King's Knot just below and behind the castle, through the Wars of Scottish Independence, right through the glorious days of the Stewart Dynasty, making Stirling not only the centre for the arts and heroic martial exploit, but also the administrative capital of the ancient kingdom.
After the Jacobite Rising of 1715, the ancient fort being ruled by the Duke of Argyll, heirs and successors, was to become the nation's main filtering point for the training of the Highland regiments throughout the age of the Empire concluding in the Aiden campaign of 1967, the Argyll and Sutherland Museum in the Castle laying testimony to this. Industrial unrest resulted in the national miners' strike of 1984, which began in Stirling's Polmaise colliery.
