Owner's comments
Stirling Castle (taken from: http://chestofbooks.com/gardening-horticulture/Robert-Hogg/The-Fruit-Manual-Great-Britain/Apples-Part-176.html)
Fruit, large, three inches and a half wide, and two inches and three-quarters high; round and oblate, even and regularly shaped. Skin, clear pea-green, which becomes pale yellow or straw-coloured when it ripens, with a blush and broken stripes of pale crimson on the side next the sun, and several large dots sprinkled over the surface. Eye, half closed, with erect convergent segments, set in a pretty deep, wide, and saucer-like basin. Stamens, median; tube, conical. Stalk, from half an inch to an inch long, slender, inserted in a deep and wide cavity, from which are branches of russet. Flesh, white, very tender, juicy, and of the character of that of Hawthornden. Cells, wide open, obovate; abaxile.
An excellent early culinary apple; in use in August and September. The tree is an immense bearer, and is well adapted for bush culture.
It was raised at Stirling by John Christie, a small nurseryman at Causeyhead, on the road to Bridge of Allan, about the year 1830.