TEN shallow graves have given up their dead and their secrets at Stirling Castle, leading archaeologists to the long-lost private chapel of James IV.

The discovery of the skeletons under the floor of a former army kitchen was described yesterday as ''very exciting'' by Gordon Ewart, the archaeologist who found them.

The remains of an English knight, a victim of a royal jousting tournament, and several members of the courts of Scotland's early Stuart kings, provide a snapshot of a world lost in the mists of heraldry.

The chapel - dedicated to St Michael by the Scots king Alexander I - fell into disuse after James IV built the castle's present chapel royal as an act of penance for his sins in plotting his own father's death.

Dating to the early 1100s, it is the oldest building identified at the castle and the only part of the structure to predate the Scottish wars of independence.

One of its internees includes the English knight Sir John Strickeley, Lord of Kerselow in Buckinghamshire, who, records show, was killed during a Scots siege of Stirling Castle on October 10, 1341.

Mr Ewart said: ''Castles were not normal places of Christian burial, so these people were clearly all subject to exceptional circumstances. Persons of high status would have been buried here during times of siege when they could not have been taken outside the walls.

''Sir John Strickeley was killed during the successful Scots siege of 1341-42, long before the English, who were occupying the castle, ran out of food and surrendered in April 1342. The skeleton shows he had problems with his teeth.

''All 10 bodies were given Christian burials, with their heads to the west awaiting the resurrection. Not all of the bodies were buried at the same time, and some had been disturbed by later interments, and by alterations to the building in the following centuries.''

Pathologists were called in by Mr Ewart's organisation, Kirkland Archaeology, to put an age to the skeletons. Eight were adults, and two were infants not more than one year old. At least six of the bodies were male. Four of the males had died in their early 20s, already showing early signs of arthritis.

Mr Ewart said: ''Most of the men exhibited a muscle injury caused by lifting heavy loads with the arms.

''They had sturdy upper bodies, big upper right arms consistent with wielding heavy swords, and injuries to their ankles caused by horse riding.

''One male skeleton who had died in his late 20s had an iron arrowhead buried in his chest cavity, and a healed cut mark above his right eye, caused by a sword. Remarkably, neither injury had been the cause of death and there were traces of infection from the arrow wound.

''The only obvious candidate for this warrior is Robert Morley, an English knight who died during a tournament at Stirling Castle in 1388. The skeleton clearly shows the effects of riding on the ankles. A sword had hit him on the face but we could tell he was a seasoned fighter used to taking heavy loads.

''The injuries on the other male skeletons are consistent with them being soldiers of considerable rank, who had died in the castle during a siege and so were denied proper burial in a parish church. Stirling Castle is not short of sieges in this period.

''The one certain female skeleton may be that of a courtier of Marie de Coursie, the fabulously wealthy second wife of Alexander II. She died in middle age. She has a hole in the top of her skull possibly caused by a missile fired over the ramparts of the castle. It would certainly have killed her.''

Other skeletons were also found at the site. Among them are thought to be important members of the royal household killed by the plague which reached Scotland in 1350.

The recovered skeletons, fragments of which are still being studied at Oxford University, will be reburied when work on them is complete.