Mar's Wark
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Mar's Wark is a ruined building in
Stirling Stirling (; sco, Stirlin; gd, Sruighlea ) is a city in central Scotland, northeast of Glasgow and north-west of Edinburgh. The market town, surrounded by rich farmland, grew up connecting the royal citadel, the medieval old town with its me ...
built 1570–1572 by John Erskine,
Regent of Scotland A regent is a person selected to act as head of state (ruling or not) because minority reign, the ruler is a minor, not present, or debilitated. Currently there is only one ruling Regency (government), Regency in the world, sovereign Liechtens ...
and Earl of Mar, and now in the care of Historic Scotland. Mar intended the building for the principal residence of the Clan Erskine, Erskine family in Stirling, whose chief had become hereditary keeper of the nearby royal Stirling Castle where the princes of Scotland were schooled. The house was known as "Mar's Lodging." ''Wiktionary:wark#Etymology 3, Wark'' is a Scots language word for ''work'', and here it stands for Workhouse. Stirling Town Council took control of the building in 1733, and converted it into a Workhouse (hence "Mar's Wark"). So it remained until the 1745 Jacobite rising, when it was occupied by Jacobite troops and was then badly damaged by cannon fire from the government garrison in the castle. The Town Council abandoned the building and relocated the Workhouse elsewhere in the town (now city). However, the site continued to be known as Mar's Wark, or sometimes Mar's Work until the present day.


Description

The building fronts the kirk yard of the Church of the Holy Rude, Holy Rude Church and sits at the head of the processional route to Stirling Castle above the town's tollbooth. The windowless front façade survives lacking its upper storey, access is possible to the first floor. The basement vaults have doors and windows to the street and may have been intended for shops. The façade is nearly symmetrical around a gatehouse frontispiece with two polygonal towers. Liberal carved stone decoration is based on European print-sources or decorative arts with royal and Clan Erskine, Erskine heraldry, and wry inscriptions. A motif of the letter "A" with the earl's coronet points to a variant version of the family name, as "Areskine," or possibly the initial of Mar's countess, Annabell Murray, Countess of Mar, Annabella Murray. Traditionally it has been alleged that the carvings include stones re-cycled from Cambuskenneth Abbey. The general articulation and architectural mouldings closely reflect royal buildings, especially the palace at Stirling Castle. The Earl of Mar may well have called upon the skills of the royal Master of Work to the Crown of Scotland of the time, William MacDowall. The Wark is now protected by the Scottish Government as a scheduled monument.


Inscriptions

The middle Scots inscriptions carved on the gatehouse centrepiece refer to the onlooker's appreciation of the architecture and the eminence of the Regent himself in the building's own voice:
South tower
I pray all luikaris on this luging
With gentile E to gif thair juging
''I pray all lookers on this lodging'',
''With gentle eye to give their judging.''
North tower
The moir I stand on oppin hitht
My faultis moir subject ar to sitht
''The more I stand on open height'',
''My faults more subject are to sight''.
(As I am so prominent, so my faults are more obvious)
Internal (exit) arch
Esspy speik furth and spair nocht
Considder veil I cair notht
''See, speak forth and spare not'' (or possibly; ''question'' not),
''Consider well, I care not.''


History

It is often said that the building was never finished, but there is little evidence for this, although it was probably unfinished at the death of Regent Mar in October 1572. It seems from the records of Stirling burgh that his widow Countess Annabella continued to use the building. In April 1584 supporters of the Archibald Douglas, 8th Earl of Angus, Earl of Angus were ordered to surrender the castle and the town gates of Stirling with the "lodging of Annabell, Countess of Mar, and other places of fortification." The captive William Ruthven, 1st Earl of Gowrie, Earl of Gowrie was brought to the "Lady Marrs House" for his trial in May 1584. In December 1593 Anne of Denmark, pregnant with Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales, Prince Henry came to Stirling and was first lodged in the Earl of Argyll's house, then Lady Mar's lodging until her rooms in castle were ready. In May 1595 a banquet for the marriage of the king's mistress Anne Lyon, Countess of Kinghorne, Anne Murray and Patrick Lyon, 1st Earl of Kinghorne, Lord Glamis was to be held at the Countess of Mar's new house in Stirling. In 1602 a French ambassador, the Charles Cauchon de Maupas, Baron de Tour came to Stirling and had a talk with the Countess in "Lady Mar's House". As the lodging commands Broad Street and the town it was later used to mount artillery during civil unrest. The building seems to be mentioned in this context in May 1578, when there was a discussion about holding a parliament in the tolbooth, and copies of documents refer to "Lady Maries House", possibly meaning "Lady Mar's House".''Calendar State Papers Scotland: 1574-1581'', vol. 5 (Edinburgh, 1907), p. 291 citing TNA SP52/27 ff. 37, 38.


References


Further reading

* Chris Tabraham, ''Argyll's Lodging & Mar's Wark'' Historic Scotland (2002). .
Fleming, J. S., 'Regent Mar's Ludging,' in ''PSAS'', (January 1905), pp.153-172
line drawings of sculpture and details of inscriptions.


External links

* {{Commons category-inline * Historic Environment Scotland
Visitor guide

Mar's Wark
Scotland's Places Houses completed in 1572 Scheduled monuments in Scotland Historic Environment Scotland properties Ruins in Stirling (council area) 16th century in Scotland Renaissance architecture in Scotland 1572 establishments in Scotland