ARCHIVE images at a Stirling exhibition are set to take visitors down memory lane.

A display has opened at the Stirling Arcade to celebrate the revamp of the city’s iconic King Street, where Scotland’s national bard once caused controversy by etching a poem on a hotel window.

The pop-up exhibition celebrates a conservation project along the stretch while giving people a chance to learn about its history.

It showcases how King Street evolved over the years, but also how it still retains much of its splendour after a £1million revamp by the Stirling City Heritage Trust in partnership with the local authority.

Formerly known in medieval times as the High Gait and later Quality Street, the street in the shadow of Stirling Castle is home to the Golden Lion Hotel, its oldest building dating back to 1786.

It was here that poet Robert Burns almost lost his job after being inspired to write The Stirling Lines on a window pane, after becoming outraged at the rundown state of the castle.

The verse, written on August 26 in 1787, almost cut short his career as a customs exciseman, as it upset local officials.

Lindsay Lennie, Stirling City Heritage Trust’s grants officer, said: “The exhibition celebrates the £1milion invested in restoring King Street back to its former glory over the past six years.

“It’s such an important street linking Stirling Castle at the top of the town with modern shopping at places like The Thistles.

“A lot of the buildings were in need of repair and the trust’s conservation work was focussed on stimulating the economic regeneration of this historic street.

“King Street has such a wonderful story.”