The face of a medieval knight found at Stirling Castle has been seen for the first time since he was killed in the 13th or 14th century.

The battle-scarred face of a medieval knight who was killed some 700 years ago has been revealed with the help of forensic skills employed in popular TV shows such as CSI.

The skeleton of the warrior, who was killed at the time of Scotland’s Wars of Independence with England, was discovered under the floor of a chapel at Stirling Castle.

Now a team at Dundee University, led by world-renowned forensic anthropologist Professor Sue Black, have revealed what he would have looked like.

Analysis of the skeleton, which was unearthed in 1997, reveals that when he died the man was in his 20s, was around 5ft 7in and ‘very strong and fit, with the physique of a professional rugby player’.

Experts also found he suffered several serious wounds in earlier fights, including an arrowhead lodged in his chest and a dent in the front of his skull from an axe blow, before he was killed by a blow from a sword which went through his nose and jaw.

The researchers believe that he was lying on the ground when he was struck.

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Evidence has been found of Africans being present at Stirling Castle as early as the 1540s.

John Harrison found references to morys – or moors – in the “Bread Book”, a record of who received loaves from the royal kitchens in 1549.

The book may be the first clear record of Africans at Stirling Castle’s Royal Palace, Mr Harrison said.

The research is part of Historic Scotland’s £12m restoration of the palace to its mid-16th Century heyday.

The Bread Book dates from when the palace was the main residence of Scotland’s queen mother, and future regent, Mary de Guise, the mother of Mary Queen of Scots.

Mr Harrison believes the “morys” were probably either black Africans or Arabs originating from north Africa.

He said the book provided a “fascinating glimpse” into the diversity of the royal court at Stirling.

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The markings found on a set of giant 16th century medallions in Stirling Castle have been found to be the oldest written instrumental music in Scotland.

Mr Donaldson found a sequence of ’0′s, ‘I’s and ‘II’s carved round the edge of head number 20, which bears the image of a woman’s face. He contacted Barnaby Brown, a lecturer at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, who specialises in early Scottish music.

Mr Brown recognised the similarity of the sequence to rare Welsh notations, which were previously thought to be the earliest markings of their kind in Britain

Archaeologists at Stirling Castle in Scotland believe they may have found the bones of a knight killed during the early 1400s.

Archaeologists believe that bones found in an ancient chapel on the site are those of an English knight named Robert Morley who died in a tournament there in 1388.

Radio carbon dating has confirmed that the skeleton is from that period, and detailed analysis suggests that he was in his mid-20s, was heavily muscled and had suffered several serious wounds in earlier contests.

He appears to have survived for some time with a large arrowhead lodged in his chest, while the re-growth of bone around a dent in the front of his skull indicates that he had also recovered from a severe blow from an axe.