Mar's Wark

It is often said that the building was never finished, but there is little evidence for this, although it was probably unfinished at the death of Regent Mar in October 1572. Datestones give the years 1570 and 1572. The records of Stirling burgh suggest that his widow Countess Annabella continued to use the building. In April 1584 supporters of the Earl of Angus were ordered to surrender the castle and the town gates of Stirling with the "lodging of Annabell, Countess of Mar, and other places of fortification." The captive Earl of Gowrie was brought to the "Lady Marrs House" for his trial in May 1584. In December 1593 Anne of Denmark, pregnant with Prince Henry, came to Stirling and was…

The building fronts the kirk yard of the Holy Rude Church and sits at the head of the processional route to Stirling Castle above the town's tollbooth. The windowless front façade survives lacking its upper storey, access is possible to the first floor. The basement vaults have doors and windows to the street and may have been intended for shops. The façade is nearly symmetrical around a gatehouse frontispiece with two polygonal towers. Liberal carved stone decoration is based on European print-sources or decorative arts with royal and Erskine heraldry, and wry inscriptions. A motif of the letter "A" with the earl's coronet points to a variant version of the family name, as "Areskine," or…