In 1859, a competition was held in Scotland for architects to submit plans for the creation of a national monument that sought to honor and commemorate the battle of Stirling Bridge. John Thomas Rochead (1814-1878) was chosen winner among 76 entrants, and the monument was completed in 1869 at a cost of ?18,000 on the Abbey Craig near Stirling.102 The monument is 220 feet tall and made of sandstone, and from the top of the observation area one can view the field of Stirling where Edward I’s forces were said to have organized. James Coleman has argued that, from the inception of the monument, the site has become a place where Wallace’s role in Scottish nationalism has been misinterpreted. Coleman argues that we should “shrug off this post-Braveheart image of William Wallace and its associations with modern Scottish nationalism” and reexamine the monument in light of its original political context in the nineteenth century, where it marked “the patriot-hero’s achievement of independence for Scotland and to commemorate what he had done for the Union and the Empire.”103 Coleman’s point is duly taken; however, the popularity and staying power of Gibson’s film makes the scholar’s argument (though valid) less likely to be actualized.
In 1996, Tom Church, a stonemason, sculpted a 13-foot, 12-ton statue of Wallace that was directly based on Gibson’s character, and this was placed in the monument’s parking lot at the foot of Abbey Craig. Most visitors, critics, and Scots apparently disliked the piece. On the figure’s shield is the word “Braveheart,” and his mouth is open as if shouting a battle cry, in a way that definitely recalls Gibson’s Wallace. Andrew Ross has alluded to the commercialization of the monument in recent years, noting that the “Disney touch is evident in an audiovisual ‘talking head’ display that dramatizes dialogues between Wallace and his antagonists.”104 The National Monument also has a “Legends Coffee House/Gift Shop,” where one can relax, have a cappuccino, and take in the view of the (now cleaned-up) battlefield. The creation of this eatery forced the removal of Church’s statue in 2008; it went back to the artist’s residence after he put it up for auction and received no bids.105
World History
