Andrew Aytoun

[6] On 28 July 1497, at "Corriwale Hawch" he delivered a sum of money to Robert Ker, Master of Artillery, who had refurbished the great cannon Mons Meg and was hauling it to Norham Castle.

In September 1502 he was paid for the expenses of a royal household in Stirling which included the children of the king and Janet Kennedy, their nurses and female servants, the court embroiderers, Besse Hag, and Thomas Fleming.

Aytoun also paid for the attendance of a physician, Doctor Ogilvy, and for washing the clothes or swaddling of the youngest children, and the women who rocked their cradles.

Aytoun obtained a dairy cow, fed the swans, stocked the fish-ponds with trout and pike, and supplied rushes for the floors of the bedchambers.

[11] In November 1506 Aytoun paid the king's painter again, and also gave money to the alchemist Caldwell who was working in Stirling Castle with a furnace in an effort to make the fifth element known as "quinta essentia".

[13] The remains of a floor with heat-cracked tiles discovered at the castle by archaeologists at the "Ladies' Lookout" is believed to be the site of the workshop Aytoun provided for Caldwell, or perhaps represents a kitchen.

[18] In January 1508 James IV gave his offices of keeper of Stirling Castle and Baillie of Stirlingshire to Alexander Elphinstone and his English wife, Elizabeth Barlay.