Paintings, drawings, photography, collage – throughout October we are hosting an art exhibition which I’m really proud of. As the castle’s education officer part of my job is  to enable the local community to get the most from their heritage. This small show is a celebration of five years’ collaboration with just one of the many groups which makes superb use of Historic Scotland sites.

Reachout is an Alloa-based self-help organisation for people with mental health problems which builds members’ confidence and skills through art. Historic Scotland has given them access to places like Stirling Castle, Inchmahome Priory and Castle Campbell so group members can use them as inspiration for everything from sculptures to short stories. The results have been great, there’s so much talent there. I’ve been privileged to get to know group members, work with them, and watch their art develop and blossom. The exhibition, called Retrospect, includes around 30 pieces which have been created over the years. They are of many different kinds and most relate to Stirling Castle – like a lovely embroidered fleur de lys which recalls its Renaissance links which the French royal court.

The benefits of community education projects can be quite far-reaching. Some people gradually shed their shyness until they end up chatting confidently with castle visitors who stop to ask them about their painting or drawing. Others, who start off as participants, end up organising learning sessions for whole groups. These gains in self-esteem can feed through into other areas of life.

The collaboration with Reachout is also about people just enjoying themselves through art. The feedback we get is tremendous. One lady, called Maureen, says she has loved the chance to express her creativity through photography. Another, Sheena, sums up the feelings of many, saying: “It’s just like being back at school but this time it’s fun”.

Kirsten Wood, Stirling Castle Education Officer.

● Retrospect is in the Nether Bailey and runs for the whole of October. Entry is included in the standard ticket price for the castle.

They have to be two of the most fascinating Scots around – the forensic scientist who investigates war crimes and the archaeologist who lifted the heart of Robert the Bruce. They are joining forces at the castle at 7pm on Wednesday, 22 September to deliver public talks on the Secrets of the Skeletons.

Professor Sue Black is a forensics expert whose work has taken her from the killing fields of Kosovo to the horrors of the Asian Tsunami. She recently became famous to TV viewers across Britain when she starred in BBC 2’s History Cold Case documentary series. In one episode she used the scientific techniques employed in murder investigations to shed light on the lives and deaths of a medieval male and female whose skeletons were discovered at Stirling Castle.

One was a knight with severe head wounds and an arrow in his chest while the other was a woman whose skull had been punctured by weapons. The professor, who is Director of the Centre for Anatomy and Human Identification at the University of Dundee, is an absolutely fascinating person, a world leader in her field, and I am very much looking forward to hearing her speak. 

The other speaker for our Secrets of the Skeletons evening will be Gordon Ewart, the top Scottish archaeologist who has been excavating at the castle for 30 years and whose team discovered the skeletons. Gordon is another leader in his field and there can hardly be anyone with a greater knowledge of the castle’s archaeology. Other highlights of his career have included the lifting of the heart of Robert I at Melrose Abbey, he also excavated the earliest European monuments in Sub Saharan Africa - two 'slave' castles in the Gold Coast, and he’s pioneer of archaeology of historic gardens. I very much hope that lots of you will be able to join us and enjoy the experience of hearing two such eminent and interesting figures.

I’ve also just been hearing more details about the events we have lined up for October. Among them is Holding Scotland for the King, which will see dozens of costumed performers – complete with muskets and cannon – recalling the siege of 1651 when the castle was held by royalist supporters of Charles II. That’s on the weekend of the 9th and 10th of October and should be great family entertainment.

Gillian MacDonald, Executive Manager


● Tickets for Secrets of the Skeletons are priced at £15 (with a special discount available to Historic Scotland members). For more information or to book tickets in advance please call Stirling Castle on 01786 431 312

Back in the snowy winter of 1977 I was among the enthusiastic, half-frozen, band of archaeologists who excavated the French Spur at the castle. We delved back through broken pottery and other leftovers of centuries past, piecing together the story of the artillery emplacement, built in the 1540s by Mary of Guise, which is now the site of the Unicorn Café.

In the decades since I been invited back to investigate different areas – the Great Hall of James IV, the royal palace of James V and the Chapel Royal of James VI. Quite by coincidence I have gradually moved from the outer defences towards the innermost heart of the castle, through courtyards and into public rooms, then to the most intimate and sacred spaces. Sometimes it has also taken me from largely anonymous evidence about the general, daily lives of generations of soldiers and servants, towards some very personal connections with individuals from the past.

A few years ago, for example, a member of my team discovered some graffiti in the Prince’s Tower including the words “James 6”. The tower was refurbished around 1594, ahead of the birth of James’ son Prince Henry, and before the Union of the Crowns when the Stuarts started using Roman numerals – turning the king into James VI. So this might have been the handiwork of the young, bored, naughty Henry who spent time living in the tower before the move to England, and his death at the age of 18.

Then there were the skeletons, now world-famous after extensive media coverage of the BBC 2 History Cold Case documentary which explored the past of a knight and a woman, who both had terrible injuries from medieval weapons. We discovered a whole group of skeletons in what we believe to have been the lost 12th-century chapel of St Michael. To be buried in such a place suggests they were important, but also that something like a siege or epidemic meant the bodies could not be taken for burial elsewhere.

The skeletons were evidence of troubled times for everyone at the castle. And the marvellous thing about modern archaeology is that we are able to carry out research that tells us about who these people were, so after centuries of being forgotten their tales can be told again.

Gordon Ewart, Director of Kirkdale Archaeology.

• Come to our special evening with Gordon Ewart and Professor Sue Black, the forensic anthropologist who led the History Cold Case team which investigated the castle skeletons. Secrets of the Stirling Skeletons is on 22nd September at 6.45pm. Tickets cost £15, or £12 for concessions. Members are £10 for adults, £8 for concessions.  They are available at the castle or by ringing 01786 431 312.
  
  
• If you would like to know more about the archaeology of the castle join members of the Kirkdale Archaeology team during Scottish Archaeology Month. They will be doing talks in the Nether Bailey at 11am and 2pm on the 18th and 19th, and 25th and 26th of September – with entry included in the castle ticket price.