Mar’s Wark is a ruined building in Stirling built 1570–1572 by John Erskine, Regent of Scotland and Earl of Mar, and now in the care of Historic Scotland. Mar intended the building for the principal residence of the 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.”
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.
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