Scotland, never having been conquered since the Scots themselves overcame the Picts, does not possess that type of castle that victorious invaders have been obliged to erect throughout their newly-won regions in order to keep the native races in subjection. Soon after the Norman Conquest, massive, square-built strongholds were raised in different parts of England for use as houses for feudal barons and as bulwarks against Anglo-Saxon insurrections. Rochester, Richmond and other well-known castles date from the period of the Norman kings. Scotland, again, has not many strongholds of the great Edwardian style, like those which make such conspicuous landmarks in Wales and the neighbouring English counties. Edward I. had never a firm enough hold upon the northern land to enable him to do more than strengthen some of the existing fortresses. Bothwell, Kildrummy and Lochindorb bear witness to the English monarch’s influence, but they cannot rightly be classed as real Edwardian castles. Although the strongholds of Scotland are, on the whole, of smaller dimensions than the castles of the adjoining kingdom, yet in her bestowal of sites suitable for fortresses, Nature has dealt more generously with the former than with the latter country. Each of the Castles of Edinburgh, Stirling and Dumbarton holds a commanding position upon a precipitous rock. The main incidents in Stirling’s history, as compared and contrasted with those of the two sister strongholds, form the subject matter of this chapter. Dumbarton differs from Stirling and Edinburgh in that it was prominent as a dwelling-place of princes before the other castles emerged from the haze of tradition. From the time of the departure of the Romans until the middle of the ninth century, Alclyde or Dumbarton was the capital of the independent British Kingdom of Strathclyde; but the union of the Scottish and Pictish nations in 844 proved too strong a coalition for the more southerly race to withstand. Stirling and Edinburgh cannot lay claim to any certain history during this early period. Yet the fairly-well-authenticated tradition of St. Monenna having founded chapels on the three great rocks in question links the castles together near the time of Strathclyde’s loss of freedom.