Stirling Old Town Jail — Attraction in Great Britain

(Translated for clarity)

"Humans are wierd. I thought I was going to pick my dog treats for the week, but they took me to a dark place, where a nice man called the Dog Whisperer gave me some biscuits, so that was good.

Then I had to get my photo taken cause I'd been naughty.. then the humans took photos too, cause they must have been naughty too?

Then someone called Adam .. except his name and clothes kept changing.. took us all round this dark, interesting place with different smells and looks. I liked it a lot, and Adam was nice and funny, and interesting, but then he called me a little " horse" ?? I'm not a horse, i don't have a mane!! Then I went in a " lift"? I've never been in a lift before, so that was pretty interesting, I'm not sure why the ground kept moving though? The humans took turns to go look at an obserfashun deck? They liked it, but I don't like stairs.

I had fun, and lots of treats ( and didn't pee on anything cause I'm a good boy), and the humans seemed to have fun too..

Not sure why they said we had to escape, but I got home to tea, and a nice sleep , thanks dog whisperer and Adam!"

Human version:

Didn't expect to be allowed to take our giant heffer of a dog in, but was pleasantly surprised - he's pretty chill though, maybe not so good for reactive dogs.

The staff were great, friendly, and knowledgeable. I've been ( and worked in ) similar attractions, and this was one of the friendliest, and interesting I've been to.

The only vague thing I'd suggest, is the audio guide isn't very loud, it can be slightly hard to hear ( you can read it though), so you may need earphones.

It's a shame it wasn't slightly larger, but that's understandable, and they do well with what they have.

There have been a few reviews about the prices- tbh, in summer, I thought they were pretty reasonable, given the effort put in, and in comparison to the costs of I.e Edinburgh dungeon. It's also a lot less scary if you have little kids, but still has great atmosphere.

Hopefully next time, we'll try the escape room - the dog put his paw down and fully refused that- but on the attraction/ exhibition itself, highly...

Excellent wee attraction - highly recommended if passing by.

Went to Stirling on a day trip and saw this place and knew I ought to give it a shot. Booked a ticket online in minutes and was on the tour a few minutes afterwards. Was by myself but didn't feel alone with the other visitors in our time slot.

The first half guided tour (around 30-45 mins) was excellent where our guide/actor Adam was utterly outstanding. Very funny, great with the audience and the way he morphed into different characters changing his accents & body language etc. was brilliant. He'd not look out of place on a west-end stage.

Afterwards was able to explore at your own leisure, going on the glass lift up to the tower where you've got an outdoor 360 degree view of Stirling and also the old recreation yard balcony with more great views. Come on a good day, not a rainy one (if possible)! If you have accessibility requirements or aren't good with stairs you might have to give that a miss though as requires climbing a spiral staircase.

Very interesting story about the old Tolbooth prison (worst in the UK at the time - now a music/arts venue just across the road) which provoked the building of the 'new' jail this attraction is within, and about the change over time of treatment of prisoners from torture to reform.

Audio guided tour with a handset is provided free of charge but lots of signage is provided too so don't particularly need it (although handset has multiple languages so might be more useful if your native language isn't English).

Photography/videos encouraged, dogs also allowed (we had a wee dog come for processing in our group!)

Free Wi-Fi as within thick stone walls so no signal. Toilets provided also.

All staff were really friendly and welcoming - and I'm English!

Considering that it was £12 for the experience well worth every penny. The castle further up was asking for almost £20 (actually just walked in as no-one was looking!) and I'd be really miffed if...

For all the times we have visited Stirling, we've never been to the jail, however, after finding out that they also have escape rooms, we had to book. There were five of us, my wife and I and the three boys. We began with the escape room. You are given one hour to solve the mystery and you are taken upstairs into a really old circular room. The member of staff stays in the room with you and they are there to provide a clue or two, should you require them. We were off to a slow start, then one of my sones cracked a code and we were off! After 40 minutes, we were done. It was good fun, but we were ready for the next challenge and there wasn't one. For the money (it's not cheap), I'd like to see us in more than one room, with maybe other challenges to solve. Don't get me wrong, if you've never done it before, do it once, it's a great laugh. Once the escape room had been completed, we headed to the tour of the jail. It was quite interesting and the guy doing the tour was great, he played multiple characters and he did it well. He interacted with the crowd and made us all laugh. My only disappointment with the tour was, you don't see a lot of the jail. I think there may be other businesses working within the same building, I'm not sure but I had hoped to see more of it. If they had set up some of the cells with either actors who tell the story of their incarceration or mannequins and a voice recording, it could have been better. If you visit, make sure you head upstairs to the outdoor walkway, and then further up again, to the viewpoint. You can see for miles. It is a good day out and I would recommend visiting once but there's not enough to bring you back a second time. Unfortunately, there is no cafe or place to eat, but there are toilets inside and...