THERE is no royalty here now. Monday evening, September 7, 2020 and the King’s Knot belongs to dogs and dog walkers. Sitting beneath Stirling Castle’s rock, squeezed in between a golf course and the grand houses of Kings Park, it is a physical reminder of another time, of when Stirling was at the heart of Scotland’s story.
The King’s Knot, a three-tiered octagonal earthwork that rises to three metres high, was once part of the formal gardens of Stirling Castle that looks down on it. Another earth structure, partly truncated by Raploch Road, called the Queen’s Knot can be made out too.
This and the area that surrounds it was once royal land, the “King’s Park”, dating back to at least the 12th century (the first reference dates to 1190 during the reign of William the Lion). Jousting, hawking and hunting were the order of the day in the park long before anyone smacked a golf ball down the first fairway.
The origins of the King’s Knot itself are slightly murky. The term “knot” meant an ornamental garden in late medieval times. According to the Historic Scotland sign at the site, “the garden with its octagonal, stepped mound, or knot, was probably laid out in 1627-8 by William Watts, a ‘skilful and well-experimented’ gardener who was brought from England to supervise the Royal Gardens at Stirling and elsewhere.”
Read More: Longannet Power Station
At the time the gardens had been neglected, and “for lack of attendance become wilde and overgrown with bushes and brambles,” according to a warrant sent from Whitehall to John, Earl of Mar, the principal treasurer of Scotland. As a result, the warrant claimed, they were “an imputatioun to that wholle kingdom.”
It’s been suggested that the work to restore the gardens to their previous splendour was taken out to mark the “hamecoming” of Charles I – his Scottish coronation - in 1633. Their renewed splendour wasn’t to last, though, and by 1777 Nimmo’s History of Stirlingshire argued that because of “long neglect, and the natural wetness of the soil, the place is now little better than a marsh.”
It was only in Victorian times that the knot’s historical significance was properly recognised and in 1867 the Office of Works restored it to its present condition.
There are suggestions – based more on romance than evidence – that, long before William the Lion, the knot was once the site of King Arthur’s round table. Whatever the truth of it and whatever its former glory, now the King’s Knot is a much-loved dimple in the landscape, a marker on the edge of Stirling of what once was.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel