Tag Archives: castle

Stirling Castle bones may belong to knight

One of the wounds can be seen on the front of the skull - nice to see him again

One of the wounds can be seen on the front of the skull - nice to see him again

Wow..  been so long since I met this man.  I helped to excavate him, and remember well the arrow in his chest, among other wounds.  I called him the lucky knight…   I remeber digging him along with Dave Murray and others from Kirkdale Archaeology.   We spent years at Stirling, and this was one of the highlights.!

The report on the BBC website starts:

Archaeologists believe that bones discovered at Stirling Castle may have belonged to a knight killed in battle or during a siege in the early 1400s.

It is thought that despite the warrior’s relatively young age of about 25, he may have suffered several serious wounds from earlier fights.

Researchers thinks it is also possible he may have been living for some time with a large arrowhead in his chest.

The bones were discovered in a chapel at the castle in 1997.

They were excavated when archaeologists were working in an area of the castle which turned out to be the site of a lost medieval royal chapel.

Peter Yeoman, from Historic Scotland, said because the man was buried at the heart of a royal castle, it was indicative he was a person of prestige, possibly a knight

Now read on: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/tayside_and_central/8124109.stm

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Cousland Big Dig day 3

Mary Queen of ScotsOur Historian Louise Yeoman has been working tirelessly, and on Wednesday will be presenting findings to the group, as well as showing them how to study documentary evidence.  One amazing fact that she has pointed us to is that Mary Queen of Scots mounted her horse near to Carberry Hill East Lothian. in 1547 after the non-battle of Carberry and surrendered to the Confederate Lords (of which Lord Ruthven was a major player – even involved in the murder of Rizzio) where she was taken and held at near by Cousland Castle over night where they decided her fate.  

With this evidence, we now know the castle was still standing, and that the larger structure that we are now examining was standing at this time, and with luck, we should have the lower rooms mapped out for the open day on Saturday..  this will allow us to point to the place where this event in Scottish (and UK) history actually took place..    tell you what!   I love Community Archaeology!

The kids from teh village and all teh others are working hard, and the day was pleasant, made better when the first evidence of the collapsed castle wall started to appear!  

Lets hope that day 4 (april the 1st) does not make a fool of us!

 better than Stonehenge!

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