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Stone of Destiny
If any item has caused speculations and riddles in the Celtic world it would be the Stone of Destiny. This piece of rock is known by several other names, such as the Stone of Scone, Jacob's Pillow, Coronation Stone, Jacob's Pillar, Jacob's Ladder and Lia Fail.
Lia Fail
When the Tuatha de Danaan came to Ireland they brought with them the Four Treasures of Ireland. One of these treasures was the Lia Fail. The Lia Fail, which is now standing on the Hill of Tara, is supposed to cry or roar when touched by the rightful king of Ireland. Some authors refer to this artefact when discussing the Stone of Destiny, which can be quite confusing.
The physical description of the real Stone of Destiny is a fact: a rectangular block of pale yellow sandstone with a weight of 152 kilograms and 66 centimetre long, 41 wide and 28 high and with a Latin cross as sole inscription. The Lia Fail does not fit this description and designations such as Jacob's Pillar and Jacob's Ladder also seems inappropriate for a 28 centimetre high artefact.
Promised Land
According to the legend Jacob got signs form God while resting with his head on a stone. Of course this relic became a treasure of his tribe. Many years goes by and Moses found himself on the run in the desert with his people. Desperately thirsty Moses appealed to God and asked for help. God's suggestion was that Moses should strike the Stone with his staff. Not just a stone, but the stone. The legend assumes that God was referring to Jacob's Pillow. Hence the Stone of Destiny turned up in the Promised Land, where it was used in the coronation ceremonies as a token of the promises God made to them.
The Stone of Destiny stayed in Jerusalem until the King of Babylon killed the male heirs to the throne, being the sons of Zedekiah. The two daughters of Zedekiah and their uncle, Jeremiah, fled to Egypt and eventual they arrived in Ireland. By marrying the daughter of the Irish High King Jeremiah introduced the Stone of Destiny in the royal Irish treasury.
Supporters find evidence for this connection in the occurrence of the Red Hand of O'Neill and the Star of David in the Ulster coat of arms.
Saint Patrick's prophecy
It is believed that the Stone of Destiny was brought to Scotland in the fifth century by Fergus Mac Erc, being the king of the Irish colony Dal Riata, or Dalriada, and father of the royal Scottish lines.
In the coronation ceremony of the kings of Dal Riata was a stone blessed by Saint Patrick involved. Let us assume that Jacob's Pillow was used for this purpose. Saint Patrick has embodied a message in the Stone: wherever the Stone lay the race of Erc should reign. The tradition continued to exist long after Dal Riata had become Scottish territory. The last king in Scotland crowned at the Stone of Destiny was John Balliol in 1292.
Assuming that possession of the Stone of Destiny implied sovereignty over Scotland King Edward I of England, also known as Hammer of the Scots, took it to Westminster Abbey.
The English embedded the Stone of Destiny in their coronation ceremony by placing it underneath the Coronation Throne in 1301. Although the Scots should have regain the Stone under the Treaty of Northampton in 1328 it never has left England since. Or has it?
Real or fake
In 1950 a group of Scottish Nationalists claimed to have taken to Stone of Destiny from Westminster. Miraculously it turned up in the Scottish Arbroath Abbey after four months and was returned to Westminster immediately. Persistent rumours that the Scots returned a replica of the Stone and kept the real thing at Scone Palace were buzzing around.
To make things more complicated there are more rumours about copies. Quite persistent is the rumour that the Stone of Destiny taken by King Edward I was a replica. Hence, in the worst case scenario the 1950 group duplicated a copy. This story line can not give a decisive answer about the whereabouts of the real Stone of Destiny, although the Scottish band the Real McKenzies is pretty sure they have it. A slightly different version of this story is that Edward I took a piece of rock used to hold down the cover of the bog-pit. This version is of course favourite in Scottish nationalist circles.
Let's make things more complex. According to an other story the real Jacob's Pillow was an exuberantly decorated piece of white marble. Neither the Stone of Scone nor the British Coronation Stone fit this description. Followers of this movement also state that the Stone of Destiny never has left Ireland. Most of them have no clue about its whereabouts, but a few assume that the Leac na Ri, or Stone of the Kings, a stone embedded in the coronation chair of the O'Neill clan at Tullyhogue Fort in County Tyrone, was in fact the Stone of Destiny. If so, we will never know because the coronation chair is completely destroyed in the Nine Years War.
Whether fake or real, the British Prime Minister Major handed over the alleged Stone of Destiny to the Scots in 1996. This Stone of Destiny rests with other Scottish royal regalia in the museum of Edinburgh Castle and Queen Elizabeth II promised that it only will return to Westminster when needed in a coronation ceremony.
Erc reign
Let us return now to Saint Patrick and the message he had embodied in the Stone of Destiny.
The Scottish royal line descents directly from Fergus Mac Erc and therefore from the Irish royal line. A twist in history, being the childless Queen Elizabeth I, caused the coronation of the Scottish King James VI as King James I of England in 1603. Apart from a small hitch in the seventeenth century all English monarchs have been, and will be for at least the next two generations, descendants from Erc and therewith from the Irish royal line.
Whether Jacob's Pillow resides as Stone of Scone in Scone Palace, or as Coronation Stone in Edinburgh Castle, or as Stone of the Kings crushed and spread over County Tyrone in Northern Ireland the prophesy of Saint Parick still holds: the descendants of Fergus Mac Erc reign wherever the Stone of Destiny is.