Having read our previous staff news article about Airthrey Castle’s history as a maternity hospital, we were delighted to receive an email from Irene Falconer, who now lives in Manitoba, Canada.
Irene wrote: “I was very interested in the article giving information on the use of Airthrey Castle as a maternity hospital. I was born in the castle on July 25th, 1943. My parents lived in Clydebank at the time, so my pregnant mother was taken to Stirling in preparation for birth.”
Irene and her family emigrated to Canada in 1952, but she has since returned to visit Airthrey Castle on three occasions. One of the highlights was stepping inside the very room where she was born:
“I was delighted to be able to enter the room that I was born in as my mother knew exactly which one it was. The day I visited, a class of Japanese students were in the room, and I stopped and talked to them. They asked how I knew my birth room, and I told them my mother always said it was the only window with a clear view of the Wallace Monument.”
Now aged 82, Irene says she remains “very proud of my Scottish heritage and, of course, my Airthrey Castle.”
