Mar's Wark is the unfinished facade of a grand 16th-century townhouse, standing roofless and floorless just below the entrance to Stirling Castle. It was begun in 1570 by John Erskine, Earl of Mar, regent of Scotland during the minority of James VI, and was intended to be the grandest private dwelling in Stirling. Erskine died in 1572 with the building incomplete; later occupants made do with what was there, and the building was effectively abandoned after damage in the Jacobite siege of 1746.
What remains is the three-storey street front — a Scots Renaissance composition with statues in niches, gargoyles, classical pilasters and a heraldic panel of the Mar arms over the central archway. The carved verses inscribed on the facade (in archaic Scots) tell the story of the building and its owner. Behind the facade nothing survives, and the interior is fenced off, but the street view is striking and free to see at any time.
It stands directly opposite the Church of the Holy Rude and is impossible to miss on the walk up Castle Wynd.