A skeleton discovered buried under a primary school playground could be that of a 16th century pirate, archaeologists have said, according to The Telegraph.

The remains of a man were uncovered by council workers during survey work for an extension at Victoria Primary School in Newhaven, Edinburgh.

Experts at AOC Archaeology carbon dated the bones to the 16th or 17th centuries and, working with forensic artist Hayley Fisher, created a facial reconstruction of the man who is thought to have been in his fifties.

The school, the city's oldest working primary school, is located near Newhaven harbour where a gibbet once stood on the dockyards 600 years ago.

It is believed that the man could have been executed for piracy or other crimes before being buried in a shallow, unmarked grave.

Archaeologists said the condition of the bones and location of the burial close to the sea and gibbet, rather than at one of three nearby graveyards suggests the man was killed before being displayed to deter other pirates.