The Church of the Holy Rude has been the town’s parish church for 600 years; the infant James VI was crowned here in 1567, making it the only British church still in daily use to have witnessed a royal coronation, other than Westminster Abbey. The nave and tower date from 1456, and the church has one of the few surviving medieval open timber roofs. Stunning stained-glass windows and huge stone pillars create a powerful effect.
Church of the Holy Rude
Stirling
Lonely Planet's must-see attractions
21.1 MILES
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0.24 MILES
Hold Stirling and you control Scotland. This maxim has ensured that a fortress of some kind has existed here since prehistoric times. You cannot help…
28.56 MILES
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9.22 MILES
Completed in 2002, the Falkirk Wheel is a modern engineering marvel, a rotating boat lift that raises vessels 115ft from the Forth & Clyde Canal to the…
Nearby Stirling attractions
0.03 MILES
Mar's Wark (wark is an old Scots word for 'building') is the ornate facade of a Renaissance town house commissioned in 1569 by the wealthy earl of Mar,…
0.04 MILES
Cowane’s Hospital was built as an almshouse in 1637 by the merchant John Cowane. It has been closed since 2015, but there are plans to restore the…
0.04 MILES
The Tolbooth, built in 1705 as the town's administrative centre, is now an arts venue.
0.04 MILES
The Mercat Cross is topped with a unicorn (known as the 'Puggie'), and was once the focus of a bustling market.
0.06 MILES
This impressive Victorian prison building lay derelict from the 1960s until 2015, when it was reopened as a visitor attraction. Costumed guides lead tours…
0.08 MILES
This elegant building is Scotland's most impressive 17th-century town house, built for a wealthy local merchant and later acquired by the Earl of Argyll…
0.16 MILES
Oswald the museum cat greets visitors to this treasure trove of local history, which tells the story of Stirling from prehistoric to modern times. The…
0.24 MILES
Hold Stirling and you control Scotland. This maxim has ensured that a fortress of some kind has existed here since prehistoric times. You cannot help…