The Stone of Destiny's Lost Twin

Scone, Perthshire, Scotland

The Stone of Destiny returned to Scotland in 1996 — but the tradition insists that Edward I of England took the wrong stone in 1296. The real coronation stone is still hidden, somewhere in Perthshire.

The Stone of Destiny — Lia Fáil in Irish tradition, the Coronation Stone in Scottish — was used in the inauguration of Scottish kings at Scone for centuries before Edward I of England seized it in 1296 and installed it beneath the throne at Westminster, where it remained for 700 years until its return to Scotland in 1996. The parallel tradition, held tenaciously in Perthshire and by certain Scottish historians: when news arrived that Edward's army was coming to Scone, the Abbot of Scone had the real stone hidden and substituted a plain block of sandstone. Edward took the sandstone. The evidence for this, such as it is: the stone Edward took is a plain rectangle of Perthshire sandstone with no significant carving or decoration. Medieval descriptions of the original stone describe something of more ceremonial elaboration — potentially similar to the Irish Lia Fáil at Tara, which is an upright pillar stone. The hiding place in the tradition is somewhere in the grounds of what was Scone Palace or in the hills immediately behind it. The Abbot's only confidant was said to be the prior, who died within the year without passing on the information. The tradition is not universally accepted. Many scholars believe the sandstone is the original. But the alternative has been maintained with enough consistency for long enough that it cannot simply be dismissed as wishful thinking.