Tomorrow is St. Valentine’s Day, and Stirling, branded in recent years as ‘Scotland’s Heart’, is the place to be. This mass – produced post card of the Wallace Monument, enveloped in a heart of forget – me – nots dates to the early 1900s and is in the Stirling Smith collections.

One of the best Valentine poems was written by Stirling’s George Buchanan for Mary Queen of Scots in 1561. As it was written in Latin, it is now virtually unknown, but it is one of the literary treasures which should be cherished. February 14 is traditionally the first day of Spring. Buchanan tells us that it is the day on which the birds choose their mates, and on that day every man choose a lady to revere with pure love. Some of Buchanan’s contemporaries and fellow poets – Sir David Lindsay and Patrick Hume of Polwarth – also wrote of the beauties of Stirling as a place.

We should make more of Stirling’s historic romance and beauty. Where better for a Spring break than Stirling, Scotland’s Romantic Heart?