The Stone of Destiny has a mysterious past beyond British coronations

When Britain’s King Charles III is crowned in London on May 6, he’ll sit on an ancient chair housing a 335-pound boulder cloaked in mystery. Used for British coronations since the late 14th century, the Stone of Scone is of unknown origins and age.

Legend traces this rectangular slab to Palestine 3,000 years ago, but scientists believe it is likely from Scotland. The stone is among the most prized treasures of this nation, where it was long used to crown Scottish kings. Then in 1296, it was stolen by England.

Until 1996, when it was finally given back to Scotland, the stone resided at Westminster Abbey, where it is now reappearing for Charles’ grand coronation. Soon after, the boulder will return to its current home, Scotland’s Edinburgh Castle.

Tourists to this magnificent fortress, which looms above the city on a hilltop, can admire the stone in the castle’s Crown Room. Or they can kneel upon a replica at lavish Scone Palace, 33 miles north of Edinburgh, where the original was part of Scottish coronations for centuries.

In Edinburgh, Scone, and Westminster, travelers form a fleeting connection with the enduring puzzle of an artifact that’s been stolen twice, damaged repeatedly, mythologized endlessly, and disputed for seven centuries.

Rock of legend

One enduring myth gives the stone an even longer history. This legend states it was used as a pillow by biblical figure Jacob, more than three millennia ago, before being moved from Palestine to Egypt, Italy, Spain, and Ireland, where it was then seized by Celtic Scots.

But the Stone, which is made of sandstone, “cannot have been Jacob’s Pillow because that would have been limestone,” the bedrock of the Holy Land, says British archaeologist David Breeze, who co-authored the book The Stone of Destiny: Artefact and Icon.

After King Edward I conquered Scotland in 1296, he moved the stone to Westminster Abbey. “It was later fitted into King Edward’s chair, upon which all English and British sovereigns have been crowned since the end of the 14th century,” says British royal historian Tracy Borman.

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Stealing the stone

The last time the stone was brought out to exercise its crowning powers was the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953. Yet it nearly missed that event thanks to a bizarre caper three years earlier, involving Scottish city Arbroath. The stone was stolen from Westminster, which has hosted every British coronation since 1066, and turned up at the 12th-century Arbroath Abbey, about 80 miles north of Edinburgh.

This extraordinary heist was not the work of professional thieves, says Borman. Instead, it was the crude work of four Scottish students. They broke into the iconic Westminster, dragged the stone across its floor, and then drove away with it.

“After some negotiation between the Scottish and English governments, it was brought back to London in time for the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II,” Borman explains. “In 1996, amidst growing support for Scottish devolution, the then-U.K. prime minister, John Major, announced the stone would be kept in Scotland when not in use at coronations.”

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Upon its return to Scotland, scientific research established the stone’s geology was local, says Dauvit Broun, professor of Scottish history at the University of Glasgow. “It has been suggested that it could be the same kind of stone as is found near Scone itself,” Broun notes.

Link to kings

Yet even cutting-edge science can’t fully decode the stone, says Ewan Hyslop, head of research and climate change at Historic Environment Scotland (HES). This month, the organization completed a study involving 3D modeling and X-ray examinations that provided further evidence that the boulder appeared to be from Scone. But Hyslop conceded they still didn’t “have all the answers.”

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Along with the stone’s provenance, mystery surrounds its earliest uses. Researchers have yet to pinpoint when it first became associated with coronations, says Kathy Richmond, head of collections and applied conservation at HES.

“But legends around its origin strongly link it with kingship and the emergence of Scotland as a nation,” she says. “Sources such as the Scotichronicon attest to inauguration ceremonies taking place at Scone from at least the late ninth century.”

Myth also etched a powerful message into the stone’s surface. The 14th-century Scottish chronicler John of Fordoun claimed that before it was seized by the English, it had been inscribed with these words: “As long as fate plays fair, where this Stone lies, the Scots shall reign.”

For many centuries, fate was harsh. But now the Stone of Scone again sits proudly in the cradle of Scotland’s finest castle, when not in London bathed in the reflected glory of a coronation.