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.