The next stop on our walk is Mar’s Wark the townhouse of John Erskine, Earl of Mar, a moderate Protestant during the tumultuous years of the Scottish Reformation.

Among the many interesting statuettes/gargoyles/heraldic panels on the façade is a relief perhaps of ‘Jeannie Dark’ – Joan of Arc – being burned at the stake.  The building dates to 1570 and some suggest that the statuette is there because Joan died for her beliefs, but the Earl may have included the image because his ancestor fought with the Scots contingent alongside the French in the Hundred Years War. Can you spot her?

From here you also see across the road Hermann’s restaurant – the result of a Stirling girl meeting an Austrian catering student-Hermann-when on work placement there ( ah-the freedom of movement we lost with Brexit). It was initially run as a Scottish-Austrian restaurant at the Tollbooth down the street (prior to the redevelopment of this) when it moved to its current location.

Picture credits: Stirling4Europe 2021