A Renaissance king would expect the ceiling of his bedchamber to be truly magnificent.

James V would have been no exception, and the palace he had built in Stirling Castle was rich with elegant stone statues and other fine craftsmanship.

The Historic Scotland team recreating the palace interiors has commissioned a master craftsman to create a 1.5m tall oak carving of the royal coats of arms as the centrepiece of his bedchamber ceiling.

It will be surrounded by other carvings showing the heraldry of the four great orders of chivalry to which the king belonged.

When the palace reopens in 2011, the carvings will help give visitors a sense of what it would have been like to attend the Scottish royal court in the mid-16th century.

John Donaldson, the craftsman making the carvings, said: "The coat of arms will be very impressive, showing the Lion Rampant on a shield, with a beautiful unicorn on either side.


"And it is quite a major piece of work – in fact once it’s complete it will probably take two men to lift it.

"The whole ceiling should be quite a sight, with the heraldic symbols of the orders of chivalry to which James was proud to belong."

The stone carvings outside Linlithgow Palace showing the arms of each order will be used as the basis for Mr Donaldson's work.

He is also carving 10 much smaller bosses for the ceiling of the Queen's Bedchamber which will feature elements from the coat of arms of James’ second wife, Mary de Guise.

Five will show the Cross of Jerusalem and the rest will depict three alerions (eagle-like mythical birds) skewered on a single arrow.

Peter Buchanan, Historic Scotland Stirling Castle Palace project manager, said:

"They would have been luxuriously decorated and furnished with the very best the kingdom could afford.

Ceilings in rooms like these would often be used to display heraldry, to impress visitors with the majesty and importance of the people they belonged to.

"It's great that we have the carvings at Linlithgow to copy as these show us exactly the kind of symbols that James V had around him, and the style in which they were carved."

As James V died in 1542 it is uncertain whether he ever saw the palace complete, but Mary de Guise used Stirling as her main residence.

In the years after her husband's death she brought up her daughter Mary, Queen of Scots at Stirling.

Eventually the dowager queen advanced her political position so far that she became regent, ruling the whole of Scotland.

(GK/BMcC)