An interesting read and fantastic collection of photos of the actual stone that Jacob slept on in the Bible!
Genesis 28: 10 Jacob left Beersheba and set out for Harran. 11 When he reached a certain place, he stopped for the night because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones there, he put it under his head and lay down to sleep. 12 He had a dream in which he saw a stairway resting on the earth, with its top reaching to heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. 13 There above it[a] stood the Lord, and he said: “I am the Lord, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your descendants the land on which you are lying. 14 Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and to the east, to the north and to the south. All peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring.[b]15 I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.”
The Stone of Destiny is returning to England for the first time in more than a quarter of a century, where it will play a key role in the Coronation, amid tight security.
The Stone of Destiny is returning to England for the first time in more than a quarter of a century, where it will play a key role in the coronation, amid tight security.
At Edinburgh Castle on Thursday a special ceremony was held to mark the legendary stone – which has become a symbol of Scottish nationhood but for 700 years was housed in Westminster Abbey – starting its journey south.
The procession was led by the Lord Lyon King of Arms – the monarch’s representative in Scotland – and attended by First Minister Humza Yousaf in his capacity of Keeper of the Great Seal of Scotland and one of the commissioners for the safeguarding of the regalia.
Mr Yousaf said after the service, which saw the historic stone piped out: ‘It was a very significant, historical moment. I’m delighted to be a part of it.’
The stone will now make its way to Westminster Abbey, where it will be placed in the 700-year-old Coronation Chair for the enthronement of Charles.
It will then return to Scotland and be put back on display in the Crown Room at Edinburgh Castle in the weeks that follow.
Colin Muir, senior stone conservator at Historic Environment Scotland (HES), has the task of helping to ensure that the stone gets to London safely and is installed into the Coronation Chair.
‘We’ve assembled a team that’s involved in the transportation and installation of the stone and as part of today’s events we were carrying it as a symbolic gesture through Edinburgh on its departure,’ he said.
The relic weighs nearly 20stone (125kg) but the team of six who carried it were lifting around 26stone (164kg) given the equipment needed to transport it out of the Great Hall.
The Coronation Chair was specially built with the stone underneath, and getting it back in will be a challenge.
The stone will now make its way to Westminster Abbey, where it will be placed in the 700-year-old Coronation Chair for the enthronement of Charles. Above: The Stone of Destiny is seen under King Edward I’s Coronation Chair in 1996, shortly before it returned to Scotland
‘It’s extremely tight. In fact it will not go in straight. It’s got bare millimetres to spare,’ Mr Muir said.
The stone is more fragile than it appears, thanks to the fact that it was dropped when it was stolen from Westminster Abbey on Christmas Day in 1950 and had to be repaired.
To aid them, HES experts built a 3D print of the stone and chair to better work out how to reunite them.
Kathy Richmond, head of collections and applied conservation at HES, said: ‘We’ve been working together with the collections team at Westminster Abbey to make sure that that’s all done really carefully.
‘We’ve got to look after both objects because you’ve got to remember that the chair is also a very historic object that dates to around about 1300.
‘So the teams have been working to come up with a plan, and they’ve done all sorts of testing just to make sure that it’s going to go smoothly.’
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