J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours

With the sketchbook turned to the right are three studies of St Ninian’s Church tower and the distant Stirling Castle as seen from the village to the south. The two studies at the centre of the page depict the tower from slightly different angles, first with just an outline and a few additional details, and second with details of the brickwork, windows, pinnacles, the steeple and the clock faces (represented by blank squares). This more detailed sketch also includes ruins at the left which may be the chancel to the east of the tower, indicating that this view is from the north-west. In this case the archway beneath the tower must be what has now become a gate with pillars either side of it in the churchyard wall. Alternatively this could be a view from outside the arched gate at the east of the churchyard. In which case Turner must have ignored the chancel remains, but included the smaller ruins to the west of the tower. Most of the church was destroyed after it was used as a munitions store during the Jacobite Rising in 1745.1

At the top of the page is a sketch of the view north from the village of St Ninians to Stirling Castle with the church tower in the foreground. David Wallace-Hadrill has described this sketch as ‘showing the city at some distance in a strong morning light’.2 This observation is presumably based on the shadows that fall on the western side of the castle and Castle Rock. At the bottom of the page is the slight continuation of the sketch on folio 46 (D26345).

There are further views of Stirling from St Ninians on folios 46, 46 verso and 53 verso (D26345, D26346, D26360). There are also further views from nearby to the south, sometimes with St Ninian’s Church tower, on folios 46 verso–48 verso (D26346–D26350). Several of these depict the site of the Battle of Bannockburn (see folio 46 verso) which was perhaps Turner’s motivation for visiting the area. For a full list of Turner’s sketches of Stirling in this book, see folio 44 verso (D26342).