Qualla: Mar's Wark https://qualla.com/mar-s-wark en-us © 2026 Bendyline Wed, 08 Jul 2026 02:40:16 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/v/p/mar-s-wark-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Mar's Wark https://qualla.com/mar-s-wark Mar's Wark: Introduction https://qualla.com/mar-s-wark/ Photo credit Robert Murray, CC BY-SA 2.0. The carved inscription on the south tower of Mar's Wark addresses you directly, in middle Scots, in the voice of the building itself. *I PRAY AL LVIKARIS ON THIS LVGING, VITH GENTILE E TO GIF THAIR IVGING.* I pray all lookers on this lodging, with gentle eye to give their judging. The Earl of Mar built this house in Stirling between 1570 and 1572 to be the principal Erskine residence at the head of Broad Street, and four and a half centuries later most of it has fallen down. What survives is the front: the great gatehouse with its two polygonal towers, the carved royal heraldry, and three inscriptions that gently dare the viewer to think well of the man who put them there.

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Image: Robert Murray | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/v/p/mar-s-wark-wp/gcvp-mars-wark-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Mar's Wark: The Regent Who Ran Out of Time https://qualla.com/mar-s-wark/ Photo credit Colin Smith, CC BY-SA 2.0. John Erskine, Earl of Mar, was a careful, austere man who briefly held the highest office in Scotland. In September 1571 he was elected Regent of Scotland for the infant King James VI, whose education he had personally overseen at Stirling Castle. The Erskine family had held the ...

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Image: Colin Smith | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/v/p/mar-s-wark-wp/gcvp-mars-wark-the-regent-who-ran-out-of-time.mp3 0:06 2 full Mar's Wark: A House in the King's Voice https://qualla.com/mar-s-wark/ Photo credit CC BY-SA 3.0. The facade is one of the finest pieces of Scottish Renaissance domestic architecture left in the country. It is nearly symmetrical, organised around the gatehouse frontispiece with its two polygonal turrets. The stone carvings draw on European pattern books, displaying royal hera...

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Image: CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/v/p/mar-s-wark-wp/gcvp-mars-wark-a-house-in-the-kings-voice.mp3 0:06 3 full Mar's Wark: The Lady's House https://qualla.com/mar-s-wark/ Photo credit kim traynor, CC BY-SA 2.0. After the Regent's death, Mar's Wark belonged to his widow. Burgh records refer to it as Lady Mar's House and place it at the centre of court life in late-sixteenth-century Stirling. In April 1584 supporters of the Earl of Angus were ordered to surrender the castle and the town g...

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Image: kim traynor | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/v/p/mar-s-wark-wp/gcvp-mars-wark-the-ladys-house.mp3 0:06 4 full Mar's Wark: Open to the Sky https://qualla.com/mar-s-wark/ Photo credit Elisa.rolle, CC BY-SA 3.0. Time was harder on Mar's Wark than on the church beside it or the castle above. Because the lodging commanded Broad Street and the town, it was later used to mount artillery during civil unrest, an indignity for what had been a residence. The upper storey is gone. The roof is gon...

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Image: Elisa.rolle | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/v/p/mar-s-wark-wp/gcvp-mars-wark-open-to-the-sky.mp3 0:06 5 full