I’m using this blog to share the extensive media interest that has arisen in this project, and will update it periodically (last revised 24 January 2025). The focus of the interest is 34 fragments generated during the repair of the broken Stone in 1951, before it was returned to the authorities at Arbroath Abbey, and the implications of the number 34 for the inscription of ‘xxxv’ that Historic Environment Scotland discovered on the Stone in 2023 (see further details here).
Public responses to the request for further information have been fantastic, see here.
The media interest in my project started on 17 January 2023 with the release of a ‘wire’ by the Press Agency, journalist Neil Pooran. Neil had encountered my research online, given the anticipation of a decision from the Commissioners for the Safeguarding of the Regalia on a fragment that came to public attention in January 2024. Neil’s wire led to the following media coverage:
- Do you have a fragment of the Stone of Destiny? This professor is hunting for the 30 lost shards The Daily Telegraph (Online and print) – 17 Jan
- Professor Sally Foster from the University of Stirling is conducting a detailed investigation into the missing fragments of the Stone of Destiny. These fragments, thought to number over 30, were lost after the stone was removed from Westminster Abbey in 1950.
- Also reported by: BBC News, The Times, The Scotsman, The Independent, The Herald, Daily Mail, STV, Perspective Magazine, ITV, Daily Express, The Irish News, Daily Record, plus 20+ other regional titles.
I was unfortunately not available to engage with the immediate TV and Radio requests. My findings were mentioned on the Radio 4 Today Programme on 17 January (here at about 1:08:39-1:09:44). On the same day, Dr Mark Hall of Perth Museum (and an Honorary Senior Research Fellow at Stirling University) responded to the findings on the BBC Scotland’s Good Morning Scotland (here at about 1:42:13-1:48:03), and on the STV Evening News.
This led to a request for an ITN interview with Peter Smith (see above), expected to be broadcast in the week of 27 Jan, and other TV, radio and documentary requests.
On 23 January, Neil Pooran wrote a follow-up wire about my interpretation of the meaning of the tiny, lightly scratched ‘xxxv’, see here. A considered response from HES will hopefully follow.
- Expert believes she has unravelled Stone of Destiny’s Roman numeral mystery The London Standard (Online) 23 Jan
- Professor Sally Foster of Stirling University believes they may be a relatively modern addition to the centuries-old object and linked to her other area of research.
- Also reported:The Independent, Irish News, Mail Online, Alloa Advertiser and 180 other media outlets.
BBC Radio Orkney broadcast a short interview with me on 24 January in Around Orkney (at 3:43), intrigued that members of the public had written into to tell me about an example that ended up in Orkney.
Further newspaper coverage followed on 24 January:
- Inside the mystery of Stone of Destiny’s Roman numerals The Daily Telegraph (Online) 24 Jan
- Also reported: Daily Express, P&J, Herald, Scotsman, Yorkshire Post, The i, Stirling Observer
The research that led to my fragments findings, that generated the media interest, that led to the public responses, took place during a British Academy / Leverhulme Trust Senior Research Fellowship, supported also by a British Academy / Leverhulme Trust Small Grant. See full acknowledgements here.
