School children learn best when their imaginations are fired up. And they love the story of how archaeologists discovered the skeleton of a medieval knight beneath the floor of a lost royal chapel at the castle. So our education officer Kirsten Wood teamed up with Archaeology Scotland and the City of Glasgow College to find a way to use the knight’s tale to help primary school children learn about archaeology and science.

The college’s 3D modelling students came up with something fabulous, which is a kit containing a life-size replica set of the knight’s bones, plus models of weapons from the time. The idea is excellent, the children don’t know who the skeleton belongs to at first, but are taught the skills they need to start spotting clues about what sort of person it was. The more they discover – that this was a powerful man, who lived in medieval times and survived various battle injuries – the more fascinated they become. They can even press the model weapons into plasticine and compare the marks to the ones on the knight’s skull, to discover which kind he might have been struck with.

We piloted a version of the kit with youngsters from Cambusbarron Primary School, with excellent results. What they especially enjoyed was that after they pieced together all the evidence, they were able to hear the story of the knight’s discovery and see a facial reconstruction of what he looked like when alive.
 
The other day the college formally handed over two of the kits to us, and we invited some children visiting the castle to try one of them out. Young Ollie, Josh and Finley Beaven absolutely loved them. And in future Kirsten will be using one of the kits with school groups visiting the castle, and Archaeology Scotland will be letting teachers across Scotland use the other in their own classrooms. Hopefully they will provide the kind of educational experience that children will enjoy and remember. They will also mean that the story of a knight who lay forgotten for centuries will become well known to a whole generation.

Matthew Shelley, Stirling Castle Communications

● If you are looking for something fun to do this weekend pop along to the castle and enjoy Easter with the Stewarts. Costumed characters will explain how the festival was celebrated at the castle in the Renaissance. There will also be a display of the sumptuous dishes that royalty tucked into for the special feast which marked the end of Lent.

● Keep up to date with all that’s happening at the castle by signing up for our free e-newsletter at www.stirlingcastle.gov.uk/newsletter