Stirling Castle

elizasue

21 Jan 2025

Lessons from the Castle

4

4

Date of visit: January 2025

I have experience of challenges around: hearing and moving around.

Overall Rating

Good

Very informative staff especially in the King and Queens quarters and in the great hall, excelent immersive displays. When we arrived we got a telling off. More details in Parking section. But what made it special was being allowed to sit on the thrones, ( lift the seat of the throne and a well known saying will come to mind) It is not just a euphemism for the loo! The long oak table and admiring the restoration of parts of the Castle.

Disabled Access In and Around

Poor

As is the nature of a castle there are a lot of steps, plus a lot of cobbled paving. Some areas are inaccessible for wheelchair users. There is a lift to get to see the Stirling Heads, however this was out of order and so wheelchair users again would not be able to access. We did not get to see everything as the many steps made it very tiring for my husband. There were however plenty of seats to take a rest and signage was excelent.

Parking & Transport

Bad

We used our own vehicle, this is a small campervan, our only vehicle. On arrival was sternly told that No Campervans allowed and that we had ignored the sign on the road leading to the castle and was clearly diplayed on their website. Never saw any sign( actually looked again on the way down and still could not see any such notice) and had not looked at their website beforehand. When I expressed our apologies at our ignorance and explained my husband disabled and showed the tickets and Blue badge we were allowed to stay in the carpark but that was only because there were no coaches as quiet time of year. Parking is £4.00

Accessible Toilets

Good

There are accessible toilets in several locations, including the Guardroom square, the cafe, and the Great Hall. They were very clean, pleanty of space and room for a carer. However, there are no Changing space toilets. I beleive these are only available on special occasions like Disabled Access Day, they have additional support , which offers fully accessible toilet facilities with a changing bench and hoist

Staff

Excellent

There are on plenty of staff on hand if you need help or informtion. I wish I could remember their names but there were three excellent staff that throughly made our visit so memorable. One in the great hall and the other two in the King and Queens bedrooms. Their humour, knowledge and kindness was outstanding.