St Margaret Of Scotland

The church sits on the castle esplanade in Stirling, a small stone building that most visitors walk past without stopping. That's their loss. St Margaret of Scotland is genuinely worth fifteen minutes of your time, particularly if you're already up at the castle.

It's a Victorian-era chapel dedicated to the 11th-century queen, and inside it's all stained glass and quiet reverence. The windows tell Margaret's story - proper medieval stuff about a woman who arrived in Scotland as a Hungarian princess and ended up canonised. There's something rather moving about standing in a church named after someone the Scottish people actually cared enough about to make a saint.

You won't need long here, maybe twenty minutes unless you're really into ecclesiastical history. It's free to pop inside, and there's no tourist machinery, no gift shop, no crowds. Just a working church with some decent stained glass and a bit of genuine religious atmosphere.

If you're camping at Witches Craig Caravan & Camping Park just outside Stirling, this is an easy add-on to a castle visit. The walk up from the town centre is steep - fair warning - but once you're there you get views across the Forth Valley. Worth the climb more for the castle than for this church alone, but since you're making the trek anyway, step inside. It won't cost you anything but time.