Scone Palace / Scone Abbey

Scone, on the outskirts of Perth, was for centuries the ceremonial heart of the Scottish kingdom. An Augustinian abbey stood here from 1114, founded under a charter of Alexander I, its church housing the sacred Stone upon which Scottish monarchs were inaugurated. Beside it rises the Moot Hill, the low mound where by tradition dozens of kings were made — among them Robert the Bruce in 1306 and Charles II in 1651. Edward I of England carried the Stone off to Westminster in 1296, and a Dundee mob during the Reformation of 1559 left the abbey in ruins. The lands passed to Sir David Murray in 1600, and the Murray family, later Earls of Mansfield, hold Scone still. The present palace is largely the work of the architect William Atkinson, who rebuilt it in Gothic Revival style between 1802 and 1807 in red sandstone, its roofline crowned with battlements. Inside are collections of French furniture, porcelain and ivories gathered over generations. The grounds carry their own history: the botanist David Douglas, who introduced the fir that bears his name, trained here as a gardener, and a beech maze planted in the Mansfield tartan colours winds across the lawns.