Spectacular set of 12 Stirling Heads unveiled at castle

Jun 3 2009 by Gregor White, Stirling Observer Wednesday

Spectacular set of 12 Stirling Heads unveiled at castle

A SPECTACULAR replica set of “Scotland’s other Crown Jewels” has been unveiled at Stirling Castle.

The oak medallions known as the Stirling Heads are each a metre wide and feature vivid depictions of medieval kings and queens as well as Roman emperors and mythological heroes.

Painstakingly recreated over the past five years by expert wood carver John Donaldson, a dozen of them will go on show in the Chapel Royal from this week.

A key part of Historic Scotland’s £12 million project to return the castle’s royal palace to how it may have looked in its Renaissance heyday, the new Stirling Heads were unveiled by Culture Minister Michael Russell yesterday (Tuesday).

At the culmination of the project 37 of the Heads will decorate the ceiling of the King’s Inner Hall, one of the most important apartments in the palace.

Mr Russell said: “The completion of the new heads represents an important milestone in the wider project to return one of Scotland’s finest royal palaces to how it may have looked when it was a childhood residence of Mary, Queen of Scots.’’

Mr Donaldson, who used the same types of materials, tools and techniques as the original craftsmen, said: “It has been a wonderful experience to recreate the work of the Renaissance craftsmen who carved the originals 450 years ago.

“While I have been working I have often thought about who they might have been and what their lives were like.’’

The heads will now be painted in bright colours, as the originals would have been.