Chance to do decent thing is stone’s throw away

Excuse me. Can we have our stone back, please?

Councillors in Perth have been demanding the return of the Stone of Destiny, and it’s time for the British Government to listen.

It is now routine for Perthshire to point out the most famous stone in Scottish history is in the wrong place. Ever since it was taken south by an English king in 1296, locals have repeatedly suggested helping yourself to something just because it takes your fancy isn’t very neighbourly, and the stone should be returned.

The history of the “wee magic stane” – more properly known as the Stone of Scone – is wonderfully romantic, complicated and Scottish. I’m sure we all know of its theft by students in 1950 and the various conspiracies to hide it before it was given back. Then, there are the tales of replicas, which I used to love repeating in The Courier back in the ’90s, when Perth and Kinross Council launched its first campaign to bring the stone home.

Maybe the artefact that went south in 1296 was a replica, because it was sandstone; contemporary accounts said the real stone was black. Maybe the one returned in 1951 was a fake, or one of several fakes, and the real stone – or possibly the real fake – was in a Dundee church, or buried on a Perthshire farm, or hidden in a number of other mysterious locales. It all depends on which pub you’re in when the story is told.

Whatever the truth is, a piece of old, cracked sandstone was ceremonially placed in Edinburgh Castle in 1996, after PKC was unable to persuade the Government Scone could accommodate it well enough. Now, with plans afoot to transform Perth City Hall into a cultural attraction, the council is again trying to inch the stone a little closer to home, although this time in Perth.

Yes. Give the stone back, as soon as it can be wellhoused, so people can see it in Perthshire. Edinburgh Castle is popular enough anyway, and Perth and Kinross deserves its own treasures.

It’s not all the way back to Scone, but Perth is close enough. It’s time to bring it home.

Perth and Kinross deserves its own treasures