The Hill Fort

On the highest ground in the south-west of the park, above the cemetery, are the remains of a small later-prehistoric fort.

It is easy to walk past. What survives is subtle — a low domed rise with the traces of defences around it — and it takes a practised eye, or a laser survey, to read it from the surrounding ground.

The site has been under excavation in recent years as part of a wider investigation into late prehistoric settlement in the Forth valley, and into how the people living here encountered the Roman advance. Recent seasons have worked on the fort's defences, traced a roadway running into it, and identified burial mounds nearby.

Stirling's strategic position is usually told through the castle and the medieval battles fought within sight of it. The fort is a reminder that people were choosing this ground for the same reasons — command of the crossing, and a long view in every direction — more than a thousand years before the castle existed.