The Coronation Chair in the days when Scotland's war-appropriated stone was still resident in London

These were no common thieves, and the target of their break-in was no common religious ornament or icon.

Ian Hamilton, Gavin Vernon and Alan Stuart passed quietly through the cold, dark church and headed straight for the Coronation Chair. Once there, they removed a 336 pound slab of sandstone from its base, wrestled it out of the Abbey and into the boot of a waiting car, driven by a female accomplice, Kay Matheson.

The four, all students, then drove north across the border to Scotland, their mission accomplished

For the first time in over 650 years, the Stone of Destiny was home.

Tradition has it that the Stone of Destiny, or the Lia Fail to give it its Gaelic name, was originally the stone upon which, in the Biblical story, Jacob laid his head when he dreamed his vision of a ladder to heaven.

It first appeared in the pages of Scottish history in the year 503 when St.Columba brought it to the Island of Iona where it was used as the coronation seat upon which local Kings were crowned.

In 843, as the Vikings ran amok in the Western Isles, Kenneth McAlpin brought the stone for safekeeping to Scone Castle in Perthshire, where he himself was duly crowned the first King of a united Scotland and where every Scottish King thereafter would be crowned until 1292.

Whatever its true origins (Jacob’s pillow my arse!), the Stone of Destiny, or the Stone of Scone as it also came to be known, had by the end of the thirteenth century become a very real symbol of Scottish nationhood and independent sovereignty.

The Stone of Destiny resting on a 12th century Ikea coffee table

In 1296 then, England’s King Edward I, the so-called “Hammer of the Scots”, knew precisely what he was doing when he robbed it from its resting place and took it to Westminster as part of the triumphant spoils from his crushing victory over the Scots and the annexation of their country.

The symbolism was apparent to all – Scotland’s destiny was now in English hands.

From the Coronation of Edward II in1306 onwards, every English king and queen has been crowned while sitting above the stone.

As news of the theft of the Lia Fail in 1950 emerged, it ignited a major sensation in Scotland as the Scottish public cheered the thieves on. After a four month (just enough time to carve a copy, perhaps?) hunt, however, the Stone was eventually found, draped in a Scottish flag, on the High Altar of Arbroath Abbey and was returned to Westminster in plenty of time for Elizabeth II’s coronation. The arguments rage to this day as to whether the recovered stone was the original or an identical fake.

The choice of Arbroath as the Stone’s resting place was undoubtedly politically significant. It was there in 1320 that a gathering of Scottish bishops and barons declared their commitment to the independence of Scotland. Like the Lia Fail itself, the Declaration of Arbroath was a powerful symbol of a Scotland which refused to subordinate its own identity to the abstract political ideal of a “Great Britain”.

In placing the stone in Arbroath Abbey, where they knew it would quickly be discovered, the Stone of Destiny thieves, Scottish Nationalists all, were making a clear statement to the British Government – “We will be North Britons no longer”.

The theft re-awakened the sleeping giant of Scottish Nationalism in a way that no politician ever could and, for the first time since the 1930’s, Home Rule and the topic of Scottish subservience to London was back on the agenda. In one stroke, four students had, symbolically at least, reversed the direction of British history.

Although caught, no criminal charges were ever raised against the four. The Government of the time knew full well that a court case would inevitably become a media circus which would only add oxygen to the flames of Scottish Nationalism. Their defence, a hugely valid one at that, would undoubtedly have been that this was no case of theft, but rather the “retrieval” of property that had been stolen from Scotland and her people in the first place.

Some 45 years later, on the 15th of November 1996, an army landrover rumbled onto the bridge across the River Tweed at Coldstream.

Its cargo was a 336 pound slab of sandstone.

After a mid-bridge exchange, the stone proceeded on its way to Edinburgh where it was met with great fanfare and the skirl of bagpipes.

Not quite the historic home, but at least it's back in Scotland. The Stone of Destiny on display in Edinburgh Castle

Two weeks later, on the 30th November, St.Andrews Day, the stone was transferred from Holyrood Palace to its permanent new home at Edinburgh Castle. Michael Forsyth, the Secretary of State for Scotland, formally accepted the stone’s return, receiving it from the Queen’s representative, Prince Andrew.

England had finally renounced its claim to the Lia Fail, and the Stone of Destiny was home once more. This time, though, it was back to stay.

*Footnote

The1950 “Stone Raiders” were invited to the official celebration of the Stone’s return at Holyrood Palace. Kay Matheson and Gavin Vernon, who flew in from Canada, both accepted but Ian Hamilton, then Rector of Aberdeen University, pointedly refused to attend.

Hamilton denounced the ceremony as a “charade” and warned “Betty Windsor” not to show her face north of the border. In tones reminiscent of John Knox he declared that “We are no longer ruled by sovereigns. Sovereignty now rests with the Scottish people.”

Amen to that.

With our own devolved Parliament now in place, and Scotland’s destiny at least partially back in her own hands, it’s a sentiment that our new generation of political “rulers” at Holyrood would do well to remember.