Tired but happy pretty much sums up the mood of the team today after an extremely busy but very successful weekend launch of our wonderfully refurbished Renaissance royal palace.

          

Everyone had pulled out all the stops to ensure our grand opening went well and it really did turn out to be everything we’d hoped for.  Over 4500 visitors flocked to the castle to be among the first to tour the palace’s spectacular apartments and enjoy the huge range of 16th century-themed entertainments staged throughout the castle by our large cast of costumed performers.

On Saturday morning, the dramatic entrance of the royal procession and their entourage really set the scene for an exciting, colourful event.  And with horses, guards, two queens, noblemen, courtiers, ladies-in waiting, jesters on stilts, renaissance music and (very loud) cannon fire it was certainly a great way to kick off our celebrations and transport visitors right back to the days of the Stewart court.

Our visitors definitely enjoyed a great day out; they were wowed by the palace and the variety of entertainments.  We had fantastic feedback from people as they went home and have also had lovely comments on our Twitter and Facebook pages.

If you weren’t able to join us at the weekend, we hope you’ll come to spend the day with us soon to see the palace and meet its royalty and courtiers – our resident team of costumed characters who help bring the palace’s history to life.

And if you’re home in front of the box tonight, do watch out for the first screenings of our new television ad.  The filming back in March was great fun so we can’t waiting to see ‘The Stewart Dynasty’ on TV.

Gillian Macdonald, Stirling Castle Executive Manager