Herds Hoose

For a long time, much of the land in the Kings Park was let out as pasture to local farmers, and sheep and cattle were able to roam quite freely in the park. The sheep were tended by a shepherd who lived in the "Herds Hoose", which was demolished in the early 1860s. Located nearby was Patie's (Peter's) Well, well known "for its healing properties". Notice in the painting by artist Leonard Baker (1831–1911) a large glacial boulder known as the "Rocking Stone". The third hole of the Kings Park Golf Course is now located near this park feature.

Leonard Baker trained at the London School of Design. He came to Stirling in 1857 as a drawing master for the High School, where the quality of his teaching was very highly regarded. He taught a generation of local artists.

The steading is believed to be the building shown in the Leonard Baker painting, which is held in the collection of the Smith Art Gallery and Museum. Its site is now covered by the fifth and seventeenth greens of the golf course, with the Rocking Stone lying over by the third.

Canmore, the national record, places the farmstead out on what is now the golf course, a little under 200 metres from this path. This stop stays on the route: the greens are in play and no place to go wandering. From here you are looking across the ground it stood on.