The Authenticity’s Child project stepped up this summer with Small Grant funding from the British Academy / Leverhulme Trust for research costs, the start of which coincided with the summer Coronation of Charles III. The Stone therefore moved from Scotland to London and back to Edinburgh Castle, with a short peregrination to St Giles Cathedral.
The Stone of Destiny has two enduring characteristics. One is to galvanise the nation of Scotland and the other is to twist the knickers of the British establishment. Last week, that celebrated lump of sandstone has demonstrated its power yet again (Alex Salmond cited in The Daily Record, 7 January 2024) Scottish nationalist Salmond’s assertion
[one of] the five most important rocks in the world (Snopes, 23 December 2023) This was always destined to be an interesting year for the Stone of Scone in the media, what with the Coronation and its imminent move to the new Perth Museum. That’s why my research is taking place now, of course, because
Bonkers but brilliant is how I would need to describe my last, six-day week. It included four days of ethnographic work in different places and with high varied subjects and methodologies: semi-structured interviews, short interviews, participant observation and two different workshops. That’s the bonkers bit – don’t try this every week! But the brilliant bit
I love how the artist George Wyllie’s Stone of Destiny wittily captures essences of the story of this contested national icon: its portability (which enabled repeated movement) and propensity to be copied. This concrete and aluminium artwork is on temporary display in the Pathfoot Building, my workplace and the home of the University of Stirling’s
Theme by the University of Stirling