Wallace Monument - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The National Wallace Monument (generally known as the Wallace Monument) is a tower standing on the summit of Abbey Craig

Abbey Craig

The Abbey Craig is the hill upon which the Wallace Monument stands, at Causewayhead, just to the north of Stirling, Scotland.The Abbey Craig is part of a complex quartz-dolerite intrusion or sill within carboniferous strata, at the western edge of the Central Coal Field, known as the Stirling Sill...

, a hilltop near Stirling

Stirling

Stirling is a city and former ancient burgh in Scotland, and is at the heart of the wider Stirling council area. The city is clustered around a large fortress and medieval old-town beside the River Forth...

in Scotland

Scotland

Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

. It commemorates Sir William Wallace

William Wallace

Sir William Wallace was a Scottish knight and landowner who became one of the main leaders during the Wars of Scottish Independence....

, the 13th century Scottish hero.

The tower was constructed following a fundraising campaign which accompanied a resurgence of Scottish national identity

Scottish national identity

Scottish national identity is a term referring to the sense of national identity and common culture of Scottish people and is shared by a considerable majority of the people of Scotland....

in the 19th century. In addition to public subscription, it was partially funded by contributions from a number of foreign donors, including Italian

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

national leader Giuseppe Garibaldi

Giuseppe Garibaldi

Giuseppe Garibaldi was an Italian military and political figure. In his twenties, he joined the Carbonari Italian patriot revolutionaries, and fled Italy after a failed insurrection. Garibaldi took part in the War of the Farrapos and the Uruguayan Civil War leading the Italian Legion, and...

. Completed in 1869 to the designs of architect John Thomas Rochead

John Thomas Rochead

John Thomas Rochead was a British architect.He was born and raised in Edinburgh, and worked for a number of years as an apprentice of David Bryce...

at a cost of £18,000, the monument is a 67-metre (220 ft) sandstone tower, built in the Victorian Gothic style. It stands on the Abbey Craig, a volcanic crag

Crag and tail

A crag is a rocky hill or mountain, generally isolated from other high ground. Crags are formed when a glacier or ice sheet passes over an area that contains a particularly resistant rock formation...

above Cambuskenneth Abbey

Cambuskenneth Abbey

Cambuskenneth Abbey is a ruined Augustinian monastery located on an area of land enclosed by a meander of the River Forth near Stirling in Scotland. The abbey is largely reduced to its foundations. The neighbouring modern village of Cambuskenneth is named after it.Cambuskenneth Abbey was founded...

, from which Wallace was said to have watched the gathering of the army of King Edward I of England

Edward I of England

Edward I , also known as Edward Longshanks and the Hammer of the Scots, was King of England from 1272 to 1307. The first son of Henry III, Edward was involved early in the political intrigues of his father's reign, which included an outright rebellion by the English barons...

, just before the Battle of Stirling Bridge

Battle of Stirling Bridge

The Battle of Stirling Bridge was a battle of the First War of Scottish Independence. On 11 September 1297, the forces of Andrew Moray and William Wallace defeated the combined English forces of John de Warenne, 6th Earl of Surrey and Hugh de Cressingham near Stirling, on the River Forth.-The main...

.

The monument is open to the general public. Visitors climb the 246 step spiral staircase to the viewing gallery inside the monument's crown, which provides expansive views of the Ochil Hills

Ochil Hills

The Ochil Hills is a range of hills in Scotland north of the Forth valley bordered by the towns of Stirling, Alloa, Kinross and Perth. The only major roads crossing the hills pass through Glen Devon/Glen Eagles and Glenfarg, the latter now largely replaced except for local traffic by the M90...

and the Forth Valley

River Forth

The River Forth , long, is the major river draining the eastern part of the central belt of Scotland.The Forth rises in Loch Ard in the Trossachs, a mountainous area some west of Stirling...

.

A number of artifacts believed to belong to Wallace are on display inside the monument, including the Wallace Sword

Wallace Sword

The Wallace Sword is an antique claymore purported to have belonged to William Wallace , a knight and Scottish patriot who led a resistance to the English occupation of Scotland during the Wars of Scottish Independence...

, and a 1.68-metre (5 ft, 6 in) long claymore

Claymore

The term claymore refers to the Scottish variant of the late medieval longsword, two-handed swords with a cross hilt, of which the guards were in use during the 15th and 16th centuries.-Terminology:...

. Inside is also a Hall of Heroes, a series of busts of famous Scots, effectively a small national Hall of Fame

Hall of Fame

A hall of fame, wall of fame, walk of fame, walk of stars or avenue of stars is a type of attraction established for any field of endeavor to honor individuals of noteworthy achievement in that field...

Braveheart statue

In 1996 Tom Church, a monumental mason from Brechin

Brechin

Brechin is a former royal burgh in Angus, Scotland. Traditionally Brechin is often described as a city because of its cathedral and its status as the seat of a pre-Reformation Roman Catholic diocese , but that status has not been officially recognised in the modern era...

, was inspired by the 1995 Mel Gibson

Mel Gibson

Mel Colm-Cille Gerard Gibson, AO is an American actor, film director, producer and screenwriter. Born in Peekskill, New York, Gibson moved with his parents to Sydney, Australia when he was 12 years old and later studied acting at the Australian National Institute of Dramatic Art.After appearing in...

film Braveheart
Braveheart
Braveheart is a 1995 epic historical drama war film directed by and starring Mel Gibson. The film was written for the screen and then novelized by Randall Wallace...

while recovering from a heart bypass operation. He carved a 4-metre (13 ft) tall, 12 metric tonne statue of Wallace from two blocks of sandstone. The statue resembles Gibson's depiction of Wallace, featuring a targe

Targe

Targe was a general word for shield in late Old English. Its diminutive, target, came to mean an object to be aimed at in the 18th century....

emblazoned with "Braveheart", a military flail

Flail (weapon)

The flail is a hand weapon derived from the agricultural tool.The handle is attached to the striking part of a weapon by a flexible chain or cord...

, and a claymore

Claymore

. Calling the statue Freedom, he leased it to Stirling Council, who in 1997 installed it in the car park of the visitor centre at the foot of the craig.

There it proved to be controversial; The Independent
The Independent
The Independent is a British national morning newspaper published in London by Independent Print Limited, owned by Alexander Lebedev since 2010. It is nicknamed the Indy, while the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, is the Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily...

described it as "among the most loathed pieces of public art in Scotland" and one local called it a "lump of crap", but the statue was popular with tourists.

The statue was subject to regular vandalism: its face was gouged out, it had paint thrown over it, it was struck with a hammer, and someone chipped off the decapitated head of the Governor of York which had formerly graced the statue's base. As a result it was enclosed in a security fence.

Plans to expand the visitor centre, including a new restaurant and reception, led to the statue's removal in 2008. Church offered it for sale for £350,000, hoping it would find a buyer in North America; of its failure to sell Church's agent said "I can’t understand how the sale hasn’t taken off. When Freedom was first unveiled, the critics labelled it the biggest piece of iconic art to come out of Scotland in the 20th century." Church later offered to donate the statue to the Trump Organization

Trump Organization

The Trump Organization is a limited liability corporation conglomerate based in Trump Tower in Manhattan, New York. The organization owns, operates, and develops hotels, resorts, residential towers, and golf courses in different countries, as well as owning several pieces of high-end real estate in...

, to act as a centrepiece of the golf resort Trump was planning in Balmedie, Aberdeenshire, but after its removal from the site the statue was returned to the sculptor, who displays it in a castle-like installation at his Brechin workshop.

External links

National Wallace Monument website
The Wallace Monument, Undiscovered Scotland
In Stirling's page on the monument

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.

Braveheart statue

See also

External links