The discovery of a squad of five hand-carved toy soldiers, and two tiny wooden horses, was among the latest surprises in our £12-million palace project. The project is returning the Renaissance royal palace within the castle walls to how it may have looked in its heyday. Another fascinating find was that one of the 16th-century Stirling Heads – metre-wide oak medallions featuring the carved faces of kings, queens and Classical heroes – has a pattern round the edge which may be Scotland’s earliest ‘written’ harp music.

The soldiers are just 4.5cm high and dressed in red jackets and busbies, similar to those worn by units of the British Army in the 19th century. A plasterer discovered them hidden beneath floorboards on the first floor of the palace in an area which was used by the army for several centuries. Initial examination suggests that they could date from around 1830 to 1850 and may have been children’s toys, or used by adults for gaming.

Richard Welander, head of the Historic Scotland collections unit, said: “These unusual little hand-made figures are full of charm and appear to take us back to the era when Stirling Castle was an important military base. Even though the carving is quite crude, the painting appears to be a good representation of the uniforms worn by Guards regiments of the mid-19th century. It’s difficult to say how they got there, but they may have been hidden by someone who, for reasons we will never know, was unable to come back and collect them.”

An experiment by Historic Scotland to try and play the music from the notation round the side of the Stirling Head attracted international media attention. The music of the head enchanted an audience of castle visitors, specially-invited guests, TV and radio crews, when it was performed in the Chapel Royal by early music experts Bill Taylor and Barnaby Brown.

An experiment by Historic Scotland to try and play the music from the notation round the side of the Stirling Head attracted international media attention. The music of the head enchanted an audience of castle visitors, specially-invited guests, TV and radio crews, when it was performed in the Chapel Royal by early music experts Bill Taylor and Barnaby Brown.

Barnaby said: “To have discovered the sort of music that was played in the palace, and perhaps enjoyed by kings and queens, is quite remarkable.” The carving is among the finest of the surviving heads, and the central image is of a woman wearing the finest Renaissance fashions. But a sequence of Is, IIs and 0s round the age are believed to be a composition which could have been played on instruments such as harps, viols, fiddles and lutes. The notation has strong similarities to a syllabus for musicians which was written down in Wales a few decades after the heads were carved.

A major milestone in the palace project was reached with the unveiling of a complete replica set of the Stirling Heads. Of these, 37 will be used on the ceiling of the King’s Presence Hall, which is where many of the originals came from.

The recreation of the ceiling is a particularly important part of the palace project as it will mean that visitors can get a real understanding of what this part of the royal apartments would actually have looked like.

Read more about the project