Perth Museum and Art Gallery – return of the Stone of Scone

Perth Museum and Art Gallery: Stone of Scone — After 728 years away from Perthshire, the Stone of Scone has returned

(Image credit: Rob McDougall)

After an absence of 728 years, the Stone of Scone – aka the Stone of Destiny – has been returned to Perthshire, said Alastair Sooke in The Telegraph. It may not look like much, but for many centuries, this block of sandstone has played a key role in the coronation of monarchs – first Scottish, then English, and finally British, up to the present day. Its origins are mysterious, but what is known is that it was housed at Scone Abbey, near Perth, until 1296, when it was seized by Edward I, taken to Westminster Abbey and fitted into the base of the Coronation Chair. When the Stone was formally returned to Scotland in 1996, crowds lined the streets of Edinburgh to greet it. Now, following a trip to London for the coronation of Charles III, it is back, close to its original home. Taking pride of place in Perth's newly renovated museum, the Stone forms part of a half-a-million-strong collection that tells the social history of the area via objects ranging from late Neolithic carved stone balls to a fibreglass replica of a 64lb salmon, landed on the River Tay in 1922, that is the heaviest ever caught in Britain.

The collection is unconventional, but rather than seeking to veil its eccentricity, the museum celebrates it. In architectural terms, the £27m renovation has been a success, said Rowan Moore in The Observer. The rather "forbidding" Edwardian building (the former city hall) has been made brighter and more open. There is "a magnificently high-ceilinged café", and good disabled access. However, corners have been cut: trees promised for the space outside have not materialised, and "big waste bins" crowd one entrance. The Stone itself is presented in a kind of "oak-clad ark of the covenant" in the main hall. The museum has tried to compensate for the fact it isn't much to look at by installing a "fey" animation recounting its history in an ante-room; alas, this "made my toes curl".

Overall, however, the museum amounts to a magical "cabinet of curiosities" in a "spectacular" setting, said Jonathan Jones in The Guardian. At every turn, there are fascinating objects that plunge the viewer "into ancient Scotland": one moment, you see a boat made from a hollowed-out tree that was used by fishermen on the Tay 3,000 years ago; the next, a standing stone bearing a carving of a "near-life-size" nude figure carrying a spear and club. It suggests that the Picts may "have gone into battle naked"; but with no surviving written records, we may never know. Equally impressive is a temporary exhibition exploring the role of the unicorn in Scottish folklore: this features "gorgeous medieval manuscripts", narwhal tusks (once thought to have belonged to unicorns), and a Dürer print "of a wild man mounted on a unicorn abducting a naked woman". This is a local museum with "ambitions on an international scale", and it delivers on them handsomely.