Cabinet Secretary for Culture and External Affairs Fiona Hyslop visited the castle yesterday to enjoy a preview tour of our magnificent Renaissance palace before this weekend’s grand launch event.  And also joining us were a group of journalists to whom Ms Hyslop unveiled our wonderful new exhibition gallery in which the original Stirling Heads are displayed.

This great new exhibition space brings together the famous and unique collection of 16th-century intricately carved oak roundels depicting royals, courtiers and classical heroes for the first time in more than 200 years; the 34 surviving Stirling Heads have not been displayed together since 1777 when the castle served as a barracks.

Many originally decorated the ceiling of the King’s Inner Hall in James V’s palace. And gracing our opulent recreation of the royal apartments is an incredible replica set, beautifully carved by master craftsman John Donaldson and now colourfully painted as they would have been in the 16th century. 

The new gallery will enable visitors to see the original Heads at close quarters so they can appreciate the detailing, and it also explains what the various characters represent and their significance. And great interactive displays with touch screens will allow people to find out more about the individual designs and have fun creating their own colour palate for the Heads.

Being able to showcase the original Heads back here at the castle and also have such an amazing replica set to demonstrate how they would have looked in situ  is a real coup for us.  We really hope you’ll be able to join us this weekend at our launch to see how fantastic the Heads and the royal apartments look, and experience a great weekend of entertainment.

Gillian Macdonald, Stirling Castle executive manager