Culture Perth and Kinross’ Post

Transcript

What is the Stone of Destiny? Why is it so important? Who looks after it and why do people care about it so much? Uncovered the story of one of the most famous objects in Scottish history with our experts, who recently had the opportunity to carry out more in depth scientific research than has ever been possible before. The Stone of Destiny, or Stone of Scone, is one of the oldest symbols of Scottish monarchy. It was used when crowning British monarchs and before that, inaugurating Scottish kings. Its earliest documented use was in 1249 at the inauguration of Alexander III. But many tall tales and legends have grown around this unassuming looking block of stone. Some date it back to the unification of the Scots and Pictish Kingdoms It is rumoured to have been in Syria, Egypt and Ireland at different points in time. Some even suggest it is mentioned in the Book of Genesis. Whilst we love a good story, none of these legends is true. Records tell us that the stone was used as early as the 9th century at Scone Abbey near Perth, one of the most important religious and political centres in the Kingdom. And our research verifies that it is made from Scottish sandstone. There's been lots of different theories about. Where the stone came from and its origins going right back into sort of mythology and legend, But more recent studies from the late 1800s onwards and through through the 20th century were starting to think it was a Scottish sandstone. So what we've been able to do is absolutely verify that. More on that later. The last Scottish king to be crowned using the stone was John Balliol in 1292. In 1296 it was seized and taken to London by Edward the First of England, along with the other symbols of kingship. Edward had the Stone of Destiny built into the base of a specially commissioned oak chair kept at Westminster Abbey in London. Following this, nearly all crowned English and British monarchs took a seat on the chair during their coronation ceremony with the stone beneath them. But this position in public life did sometimes make the stone a target. In June 1914, suffragettes targeted the Stone and Coronation chair to protest on behalf of women's rights. They set off a bomb that damaged the top of the chair. The blast also caused or worsened a crack in the stone. On Christmas Day 1950, a piece of it broke when 4 university students famously removed the stone from Westminster Abbey by dragging it across the floor using a Macintosh coat. It was repaired by a stonemason in Glasgow. The Stone of Destiny reappeared on the 11th of April 1951 at Arbroath Abbey, where the Declaration of Arbroath had been signed. It was returned to Westminster the following year and went on to be used in the coronation of Elizabeth the Second. In 1996, the stone was formally returned to Scotland. On St Andrews Day that year, 10,000 people lined Edinburgh's Royal Mile to watch as this stone made its way from the Palace of Holyroodhouse to be put on display next to the Honours of Scotland at Edinburgh Castle. This gave us the opportunity to carry out specialist conservation works and in 2023 we had the opportunity to build on that. When the stone was returned to Westminster again for the coronation of King Charles III, we scanned the stone and created a 3D model of it. And we did the same for the Coronation chair, making sure they were in good shape to be used as part of the coronation ceremony. This helped our conservation experts check the condition of both these historic objects and uncovered some new information too. The science team is doing scientific analysis and with that data we're going to find out more about the geological aspect of the stone and hopefully more about the provenance. The Collections and Applied Conservation teams have done condition assessment on this stone, which will be very helpful to know before it goes down. And today we have the Digital Documentation and Innovation team and they're 3D scanning the stone using two different techniques. One is structural light scanning and photogrammetry. And this data is gonna give us information that we cannot see with the naked eye, for example, repairs or how how this stone was constructed and potential areas of weakness. The beauty of having it in 3D space is that you can change the lighting and be able to see different stories of the stone itself. So for example this face without any lighting applied to the stone, you can see the different details of the geology of the stone even you can see. Even like the grains of sand in the sandstone, really fascinating. But when you add in lighting to the picture, it says a completely different thing, tells a completely different story. So all of these tool marks tell a really complex story of the stone that you know you would need. To set up lighting and to move the stone in order to to really appreciate in real life. And here you can start to see a different story. So if I turn back off the light a bit more difficult to see, but you can see the repair work that you can follow all the way down to the bottom of the stone. Again, almost impossible to do in real life. The imaging work that we've done has quite clearly revealed where the repair is and as part of. This work we've been able to just verify the integrity of that repair, ensure the structural integrity of the of the stone which clearly was quite badly damaged at one time the repair. It's quite visible using these techniques. And what's interesting is you can actually see where the Mason who did the repair has sympathetically chiselled away at the stone just to give a more level surface where there was a bit of unevenness. So as far as we can see, the last hand to touch the stone was probably that 1950 Mason. But there may have been effectively Masons going back 700 years who have also left their mark on this stone. And that's just, that's just fascinating to, to, to think of that sort of longevity of, of interaction with this object. The value is and the combination of techniques and the detailed microscopy work that we've done and the X-ray work, which reveals the elemental composition of the stone. Allows us to effectively fingerprint the Stone of Destiny with stone types in the Perth area. So what we've been able to establish without a doubt. Is that the stone of Destiny was worried somewhere in the in the area of Perth and from a band of rock and called the Scone Sandstone Formation. Whilst most of the work has been focused on the origin of the stone and the verification of of where it came from and geologically tying it into Perthshire as as a piece of Scottish sandstone, there's a number of other aspects have been revealed that we didn't know about before and some of that's been to do with the working of the stone or the tool marks, the way it was carved and shaped and created, but also a legacy of secondary impacts on the stone through wear and tear. So reexamination of the repair that was done when the stone was broken. But also our elemental analysis has showed some surface residues that we didn't know about before, which are just telling us little nuggets of information about things that might have happened to the stone in the past. After 28 years in Scotland's capital, The Stone of Destiny returned to Perth once more. This followed a public consultation in 2019 where the Commissioners for the Safeguarding of the Regalia of Scotland asked what factors people felt were most important in deciding the future of the stone. One of the main themes that came through from nearly 2000 responses was the stones historic connections with Perthshire. Respondents also cared deeply about making sure as many people as possible could access it. We are still responsible for the care and conservation of the stone, but it is now on permanent display at Perth Museum, which opened in 2024. So after centuries away, the Stone of Destiny is back where it started. And, as scientific techniques continue to develop Who knows what other stories we'll be able to uncover in its future?