Word had got round that there was something special going on at the castle. And I remember being taken up there by my mum, dad and three sisters. It was a summer’s day at the start of the 70s and I was six year’s old, dressed in shorts and ankle socks. It wasn’t just us who were up there, but lots of people excitedly watching, waiting – tucking into packed lunches – then waiting some more.

Patience was finally rewarded and we got to see Michael Caine turn up and climb into 18th-century costume to take on the character of the Jacobite Alan Breck in a movie version of Robert Louis Stevenson’s epic Kidnapped. We saw them making the scene where he goes through the gates and all the other Jacobite prisoners rattle their chains in his support. I remember seeing Lawrence Douglas, as David Balfour, in a sword fight with a British officer – then they took a break and some of the actors stood about in period costume smoking fags and drinking mugs of tea and coffee.

When the film was released we all headed off to the cinema to watch it and spot the bits we’d seen made at the castle. It was great stuff for a small boy, a Son of the Rock, raised below the castle hill in Raploch. We loved the castle, it was always there in the background. Me and my schoolmates used to clamber up the west side of the rock to play soldiers. And nowadays it’s an even bigger part of my life as I’m one of the seasonal stewards, it’s my fifth year in succession.

That day watching the filming has stuck with me, a very happy childhood memory. What’s even better is that I can relive the whole thing as often as I want these days because last Christmas I was given Kidnapped on DVD and it’s just as exciting as ever.

Joe Bennett, Seasonal Steward

‘Keep Right on to the End of the Road’ – it’s a famous song but do you know its origins?. It was penned by Harry Lauder in memory of his son, Captain John Currie Lauder, who was killed in action in December 1916, while serving with the 8th Battalion, Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders?

A handsome miniature portrait of John has recently gone on display at The Regimental Museum of The Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, which is in Stirling Castle but independently run. Behind this portrait lies a poignant tale of parents and a fiancée devastated with grief.

Harry Lauder, a music hall entertainer, was famous in his day as Charlie Chaplain and Laurel & Hardy. At one point he was the highest paid entertainer in the world but he used his fame to raise vast sums of money for army charities and was later knighted for his efforts. He said of John: “Every day some little incident comes up to remind me of my boy … A lump rises in my throat … People wrote to me, who like me had lost their sons.”

John had become engaged in the summer of 1916 to Mildred Thomson. After his death Mildred did not recover from the grief and never married. On her death she left the majority of her estate to the Erskine Hospital which had been set up in 1916 for the care of former members of the armed services. The hospital named a ward for disabled ex-servicemen The Lauder Thomson Ward in their memory.
By Carol Anderson, Museum Volunteer

● Do you have links to the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders or to Harry Lauder and his wartime recruitment drive? If so we’d love to hear – either add your comments to this blog or email hs.stirlingcastle@scotland.gsi.gov.uk

Take a look at our team as they replace the limewash on the Great Hall over the next few weeks and it all seems very modern. Steel-capped boots, hard hats, hi-visibility tops, up-to-date metal scaffolding and mechanical cherry pickers. But the job they are doing, the materials they use date back centuries.

In the days of the Stewart kings and queens the limewash would have been replaced every few years to keep it looking fresh and to protect the harling from the weather. For the sake of authenticity we use limewash made in the same way and of the same colour – often called King’s Gold – as they did in the 16th century. Now, like then, it means the work has to be done in summer so the limewash can fully dry out before it comes under attack from frost and snow.

Just like the Masters of Works who used to look after the castle we have to plan repairs and maintenance round other people. They had to worry about when the monarch was going to be present, and today we have to think about visitors. This year the approach has been to do the work in small stages, so we have as little of the Great Hall covered by scaffolding as possible at any one time. We also decided to have some of the preparatory cleaning work done by guys abseiling down the walls. Again, this sounds quite modern. But I bet my predecessors would have copied what was done on the ships that sailed up and down the Forth estuary and had men using boatswain’s chairs hung over the side of the roof.

This year one of the priorities is to have the Great Hall looking at its best for when the royal palace reopens to the public next spring. And I wouldn’t be surprised if my predecessor had to get the Great Hall limewashed when he heard that Mary of Guise and her young daughter, Mary Queen of Scots, were coming to take up residence in Stirling in the early 1540s when the palace was brand new.

Lawrence Begg, Regional Works Manager