In the depths of Stirling Castle a secret code has lain hidden in the king's bedchamber for almost half a millennium.

Peering down from the ceiling of the apartments of James V of Scotland, mysterious markings carved in a wooden panel have revealed a musical score written in code around the edge.

The Renaissance carving of an unknown woman is only one of 56 oak roundels that adorned the king's chambers, but it is believed to contain the first written example of harmonic musical notation found in Scotland.

A wood carver, commissioned to make exact replicas of the panels, noticed in the border of one of the roundels a code-like sequence of symbols that experts say represent a 16th-century musical composition.