Perth and the Stone of Destiny

Perth is in central Scotland, a ‘town’ as the locals prefer rather than the city status QE2 gave it not so long ago. And they  call it ‘Paarth’. It is twinned with Perth in Canada, but not Perth in Australia.

Paul was our guide. A big man, but not tall as his surname of Laing suggests. One ancestor was 7 feet tall. He was dressed in a muted mostly brown kilt, a woolen vest over possibly linen shirt with green tartan socks to his knees, tied with green string. On his back was a sword and a dagger, possibly real. I think was an authentic late-medieval look. Before midday, as he said, he was ‘roasting’.

He dispelled any notion of clan tartans being a long tradition. As he told it there were colorful tartans but usually the wealthy had them as dyes were expensive. The population wore muted browns, greens and yellow according to what local plants existed. Then when George IV came to Scotland in 1822 he wore a kilt, Stuart tartan I suspect. And he invited all the chiefs and big wigs. Suddenly they all needed tartans, so they rushed to the local kilt maker and looked through the pattern book to ‘choose a clan tartan’. 

I remember this date because the king stayed with the Marquis of Lothian at Dalkeith Palace which was near to where my Buchans resided.

Paul’s area of interest was the Jacobite wars, since Perth had been involved in every battle of the wars from 1889 to 1746. Even ‘the battle that never happened’. The two small armies, 40 on one side and 200 militiamen on foot facing off just over the bridge. Some compromise was reached and no battle took place. The point was to highlight the role of the bridge into the High St of the town, and how roads came in from other directions.

We are hearing a lot detail of names, clan affiliations, micro-detail and local stories. All our guided tours have been great.

In the main the area was for Bonny  Prince Charlie, but, as everywhere, some landowners had thrown their lot in with the Hanoverians (the British, not English). Many changed sides. 

The oldest non-church building was the cottage of Fair Mad dating back to 1389. Note the metal ‘shin-guard’ at the ground to stop cart wheels from ramming into the sidewalls. The alcove at the top held a town bell.

Perth sits on the River Tay, the longest river in Scotland. It had town walls on the other three sides. Wealthy people had a town house and a country estate, or three. These walls were gone by about 1700. One side tore them down, the other built them again, over and over. Even Robert the Bruce tore them down. On either side of the walls were large ‘no-man’s land’ spaces, now playing fields.

Every guide wants to tell us the detailed names, clan affiliations, movement up a certain street, actual hotel where commanders stayed, at every place we go. Another big player of the area were the dukes of Atholl at Blair Castle. Dee and I visited it on our 2008 bus tour. I remember loads of swords on the walls, heads of animals and I recall it was pretty magnificent. Enough to buy the guide book, a rare choice back then. This tour I am buying them all the time.

Macbeth was allegedly from Glamis castle, visiting tomorrow, and also from Cawdor, to be visited later, but he was associated with neither. The real King Macbeth ruled for 17 years in the 11th century, well before either castle was built. This Shakespeare play is the shortest, with heavy reliance on themes of witch craft, power and guilt, relentlessness and intensity. It is felt the play was to appeal to the heritage of the new Scottish king down in London, and his notorious fear of witches (even women in general).

The tale of Macbeth in life is all about the claimants to the throne. As was all of Scottish history I think we can safely say. Men eliminate rivals, usually in awful ways. Men marry their daughters off hopefully to advantage. Macbeth himself is the son of a daughter of Malcolm 2, but he had to battle another grandson, so his first cousin, for the throne. Macbeth was singular in that he went to Rome, so at peace enough to leave the kingdom, and pious in his choice of holiday destination.

The curse of Macbeth it is said to exist because witches of the day were upset because real spells were included in the text. Being a spoken play, rather than read in a book, the spells were being said daily! David Tennant and whole cast got covid on one occasion.

A curious image along the wall at River Tay, if you look closely it is an anatomically detailed image of a heart. Other images made sense, the town is twinned with Perth in Canada, but Perth in Australia, big mistake.

Hearts are found in most towns on the ground, where the mercat cross of the town used to stand. This was where important news of the day was proclaimed. The death of QE2 was proclaimed at Edinburgh’s mercat cross, the new one, not the large heart on the pavement.

Fantastic weather continues to hound us.

We moved onto Perth Museum to see THE STONE OF DESTINY. In a lovely newly opened museum, like in 2024, we had a private viewing of the animation and actual sandstone block. It has been the ceremonial rock upon which Scottish kings were proclaimed since the first king, Kenneth MacAlpine to Charles II. In 1296 the English king, Edward I stole it, and took it to Westminster, as a way to subdue the Scottish nobility. England returned it some time later last century, after 4 Glaswegian hoodlums stole it from them, and broke it in half! 

The deal is that the Stone can stay in Scotland, but must be brought back for British coronations. It was taken down to London for the coronation of King Charles III in 2023, and then returned. It was a little underwhelming, to be perfectly frank. Later that day we went to Scone Palace, a modern private palace, so named because it was previously the site of a monastic palace. This is where the Stone of Destiny sat for over 500 years.

This had more impact. We got to sit on the fake sandstone block in position, but we also got to walk along the very site of the procession to the ‘proclamation’ mound - where the stone was placed for the ceremony. The route is now the long hall in a modern building, it had been built on the footprint of the previous building. So were truly walking in the footsteps of the 42 kings of Scotland proclaimed there. Alexander III (?), was the first one to have a crown put on his head in the 1290s.

A very grainy shot of siting on the Stone of Destiny, pending the better image coming across to the iPad.

At Scone Palace we encountered a whole new world of wonderful interiors and personal objects, but being in private hands, there was no photography allowed inside! I duly purchased the guide book.

I am having trouble syncing my iPhone to the iPad due to the weight of photos, yes I need to be more selective at the pressing the button phase. But as I find them I will put them here.

Perth museum had some great Pictish stones and evocative displays.

I am afraid that the still image does not have the same impact as the animations behind the artifacts.here is another Pictish stone; we saw some great ones today at Dunrobin Castle, in Sutherland, the most northerly grand castle in Scotland.

The Christian side of a later stone, or was each side carved at a different time?

In the afternoon, we went to the Black Watch Museum.