A less famous, though not a less real, person than the great British warrior chief was Monenna or Modwenna, a high-born saint of Ireland. At least two women bearing this name devoted themselves to the religious life, and some confusion has arisen as to which of them it was who became connected with Stirling. The Monenna who lived in the ninth century, however, apparently visited both England and Scotland, and she seems to have been the one who built, among other churches, the chapel in Stirling Castle.[2]
Perhaps because the fortress was so obviously a place of strength the early chroniclers have associated with it events which possibly never took place. Boece mentions that Kenneth MacAlpine laid siege to the castle during the Pictish wars; and the same historian asserts that King Osbert of Northumbria occupied Stirling for a number of years, and established a mint in the fortress. A “cunyie-house” at one time did exist in the castle, but the oldest coins known to have been struck at Stirling date from the reign of Alexander III. A site so favourable for a stronghold, however, must have been the scene of many unrecorded fights, so that “the place of striving,” which was formerly thought to have been the meaning of the citadel’s name, would be no inappropriate appellation. “Stirling” is now held to be a corruption of the Welsh Ystre Felyn, signifying “The dwelling of Velin,” old forms of the name being Estrevelyn, Striviling and Struelin.[3] The more poetic “Snowdon” or “Snawdoun,” a corruption perhaps of some Celtic appellation, or else meaning merely the “snowy hill,” was the name given to Stirling by some of the old chroniclers, as well as by Sir David Lyndsay in The Testament of the Papingo.
As Rutherglen is known as Ruglen, as Anstruther is called Anster, so Striviling throughout the ages has been spoken of as Stirling. Scots have always had a tendency to elide a syllable or to soften any harshness in their place-names, and the metathesis of the letter r and its vowel is common in the English language, as in the case of three, third and hundred, which used to be sounded as hunderd. In modern times the spelling of the name has been fixed to suit the pronunciation, but that in James IV.’s reign the place was called Stirling is seen from the rhyming lines of one of Dunbar’s poems:
“Cum hame and dwell no moir in Striuilling;
Frome hiddouss hell cum hame and dwell,
Quhair fische to sell is non bot spirling;
Cum hame and dwell no moir in Striuilling.”[4]
In the poems of Barbour and Wyntoun the scansion seems to require the name to be pronounced as a word of two syllables, and in Sir David Lyndsay’s Complaynt the following lines occur:
“Quhen his Grace cumis to fair Sterling
There sall he se ane dayis derling.”
Definite though meagre history associated with Stirling begins with the reign of Alexander I., who occupied the Scottish throne from 1107 till 1124. This monarch, known as “The Fierce,” because of his swift vengeance on the rebellious subjects who rose to attack him at Invergowrie, seems to have frequently resided in the castle. He apparently built a new chapel on the rock, for during the reign of his brother David a document, drawn up at Edinburgh to settle a dispute concerning tithes, refers to the dedication by King Alexander of the Chapel of Stirling Castle:
“Hec est concordia que facta fuit apud Castellum Puellarum, coram rege Dauid et filio eius et baronibus eorum, inter R. episcopum Sancti Andree et G. abbatem de Dunfermelyn, de ecclesia parochiali de Eccles et Capella Castelli de Striuelin: Recordati fuerunt barones regis, et in hac recordacione omnes concordati sunt, quod ea die que Rex Alexander facit Capellam dedicare supra dictam, donauit et concessit eidem Capelle decimas dominiorum suorum in soca de Striuelin; que eadem die fuerunt domina sua siue acreuerunt siue decreuerunt....”[5]
The above may be rendered as follows in English:
“This is the agreement that was made at the Castle of the Maidens [Edinburgh] in the presence of King David, his son Henry and their barons, between Robert, Bishop of St. Andrews, and Galfrid, Abbot of Dunfermline, regarding the parish church of Eccles and the chapel of Stirling Castle. The King’s barons remembered, and in that remembrance all agreed, that on the day on which King Alexander dedicated the aforesaid chapel, he gave and granted to it the tithes of his domains in the jurisdiction of Stirling, which domains were his at the time, whether they increased or decreased.”