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