“So thanks to all at
once and to each one,
Whom we invite to see us crown'd at Scone.”
Whom we invite to see us crown'd at Scone.”
William Shakespeare - Macbeth
I hate Macbeth! I hate
teaching it, I hated learning about it, I didn’t get it, I still don’t. It’s got certain charm as a piece of propaganda
though. Way to make the boss look good! The reason I mention Macbeth at all, is because I've never been quite sure how to pronounce Scone. I should know, they are the final words of the terrible thing! Turns out the place is pronounced quite differently to the thing you serve with jam and clotted cream - Skoon.
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| Moot Hill |
Scone is the ancient crowning place of Scottish Kings, including the much
maligned Macbeth. Legend has it the men
coming to pay homage to their liege would shake the soil from their boots. Over millennia this dirt became Moot Hill, on
which a replica of the Stone of Scone now sits.
This place, which should evoke something of this long history, is rather
incongruously placed within the gently manicured lawns of the Earls of
Mansfield.
The Stone of Scone has
been a pawn at the centre of Scottish/English history for more than 800 years no
longer rests under King Edward’s Chair in Westminster Abbey. It now sits safely in Edinburgh Castle. It's almost home.
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