Stirling Castle
Johnston, A. 'The prospect of Sterling Castle'
John Slezer (ca.1650-1714) a military engineer, surveyor and draughtsman, arrived in Scotland in 1669 from the Continent. Nearly 20 years later in 1688 he was appointed by the Scottish Parliament as Captain of the Artillery Company, and as Surveyor of Their Majesties (William and Mary) Stores and Magazines in the Kingdom of Scotland. Over those 20 years he also prepared drawings for and assembled what may be termed the first pictorial survey of all the important cities, towns and other significant sites within his adopted homeland, comprising 57 views published as his Theatrum Scotiae, in 1693, and with later editions in 1718, 1719, 1797 and 1814.
Stirling Castle, sited dramatically on a northwest – southeast axis determined by its location on a glacially-sculpted volcanic ridge perched above the surrounding marshlands (mosses), particularly to its west, was also then at the lowest bridging point on the River Forth and the highest tidal point for shipping coming up that river from the North Sea. With such natural geographical advantages, it became a strategic site of major defensive significance, and this was extended by it also being an important junction point for communications to north and south.
This view of Sterling Castle, appeared in a later edition of the Theatrum Scotiae published after Slezer’s death. Exquisitely engraved though it is by Andrew Johnston, it disappoints because the angle from which it is shown (the south) does not allow us to see the steep, dramatic and rocky crags on which it is built. However we can see part of the ornate façade of King James IV’s Palace, built for his second wife, Marie de Guise, mother of Mary, Queen of Scots, and part of King James V’s great Forework of around 1513, with its pointed towers, as well as a few of the buildings of the town falling away to the southeast down the ridge in the right of the view.
