On Christmas Day 1950, a group of four Scottish students took the Stone of Scone from Westminster Abbey for return to Scotland. A major search for the stone had been ordered by the British Government, but this proved unsuccessful. Perhaps assuming that the Church would not return it to England, the stone's custodians left it on the altar of Arbroath Abbey, on 11 April 1951, in the safekeeping of the Church of Scotland. Read more
Scotland's First Minister Alex Salmond has said he believes the Stone of Destiny is a medieval forgery. The iconic stone, on which Scottish, English and British monarchs have been crowned since the ninth century, has long been a symbol of nationhood.
What places the Royal Salute 38 apart from other Royal Salutes is the Stone of Destiny in the second half of its name. And just what is this stone thats so important to the Scots? As the 13th Duke of Argyll descended from a clan closely linked with the British royal family as well as legendary Scottish king, Robert the Bruce, and who have traditionally held high offices of state in Scotland His Grace Torquhil Ian Campbell is just the man to help us separate fact from fiction.
Archaeologists have unearthed the site where Robert the Bruce was crowned king of Scotland. The location of the abbey at Moot Hill, the original home of the Stone of Destiny, was forgotten centuries ago. But it has now been identified by experts from Glasgow University who have been surveying the grounds of Scone Palace for the first time. They used scanners to detect buried structures and found part of the abbey church and a bell tower. The coronation of Pictish and Scottish kings took place at Moot Hill for hundreds of years, and a royal abbey was built there by 1120AD.
From the reign of Kenneth MacAlpin in the ninth century, every Scots king assumed the mantle of power, seated on the Stone of Destiny, on the ancient mound now known as Moot Hill (Meeting hill?)at Scone in Perthshire.
The day that the Stone of Destiny came back to Scotland, 10 years ago this week, was the oddest of occasions. This much-stolen symbol of Scottish kinghood had been driven up the M1 in the back of a Land Rover, and crossed the Border under the protection of an army convoy, lest anyone should seek, again, to steal it. When, finally, it came into public view on the bridge at the village of Coldstream, the kilted figure of Michael Forsyth, Secretary of State for Scotland, stepped forward to receive it. There was a brief welcoming ceremony, a small party of Nationalist protesters was hustled away by Special Branch, and then the Land Rover drove on.
The return of the Stone of Destiny to Scotland — one of the final acts of the Major government — was the brainchild of the 10-year-old daughter of the then Scottish secretary, Michael Forsyth, it has been revealed. The decision — widely regarded as an ill-fated attempt to win back support in Scotland for John Major’s beleaguered government and to arrest demand for devolution — was prompted by the persistence of Forsyth’s daughter Katy.