In the wake of the release of a new film and book about the 1950 theft and subsequent recovery of the Stone of Destiny, Scotland’s First Minister, Alex Salmond, has claimed that that particular Stone is a fake and that the original has been lost for 700 years.
The Stone, on which Scotland’s kings were traditionally crowned, was stolen from Scone Palace by England’s King Edward I, in 1296, and kept in Westminster Abbey until it was returned to Scotland in 1996. Even, then, the one returned to Westminster Abbey may have been a fake made by the Glasgow stonemason who repaired the stone which broke in two during the escapade.
Alex Salmond claims that ancient descriptions of the Stone describe a black shiny object, not the dull grey stone kept in Edinburgh Castle today.
More in the Times.