PERTHSHIRE’S tranquil Scone Palace is a place where visitors from all over the world can explore key moments in Scottish history.

As the Palace’s website says, this is a place where you can walk in the footsteps of Scotland’s ancient founding fathers. It housed the Stone Of Destiny, and it was where Robert The Bruce was crowned in 1306.

But the generally peaceful atmosphere at Scone will be in short supply this week, edged out by the loud and distinctive clash of medieval weapons on medieval armour.

The Palace is the first venue in the UK to stage the International Medieval Combat Federation (IMCF) world championships, with some 500 full-contact competitors taking part, each relying on authentic replicas of medieval steel armour, shields and weapons.

The four-day event begins on Thursday, and thousands of visitors are expected.

“It’s going to be a real-life Game Of Thrones,” Stephen Brannigan, head of house opening at Scone, was quoted as saying recently. The present and 8th Earl of Mansfield, William Murray, saw a display of medieval combat in New York and reportedly enthused: “It was quite the spectacle, like watching boxing in armour.

“It was hugely entertaining to watch, and not for the faint-hearted.

“I was brought up watching the film A Knight’s Tale, so I found myself completely taken by the sport.”

The weapons are all dulled and rounded for safety.

The IMCF’S own website concedes that injuries can occur – “but really no more than any other contact sport, such as rugby, or American football”.

Established in 2013, the IMCF and its world championships have since been staged in Spain, Poland, Portugal and Denmark.

Scotland’s hopes at Scone Palace will rest in the heavily protected hands of the Scottish Knight League.

All of the refereed bouts are decided by points, in the manner of Olympic boxing, says the IMCF.

Speaking from Montreal, Benoit Leger, IMCF vice-president, told The Herald: “The exact number of fighters who will be at Scone won’t be known until the last minute, because of injuries, or transport or visa issues, but we will have some 500, and between 800 and 1,000 total participants with all the staff and helpers.

“Putting a knight on in armour each day is basically like a Formula 1 team operation – you need a lot of people to organise that.

“The sport is like the Olympics in that there are many different disciplines.

“There are three individual types of fighting, for men and women.

“There’s a polearm duel, which is one-on-one – polearms have axe-heads at the end of long poles.”

He laughed as he added: “That’s for guys who don’t care about their brain-cells too much.

“We have the long-sword categories, the sword you hold with two hands. That’s a lightning-fast fight, it’s really technical and it’s beautiful to watch. The last individual fight is the sword-and-shield. That’s for the real aficionados.”

The team fights range from a female 3 v 3 and the man’s 5 v 5.

“That’s the one that can best be described as insane, because it consists of throwing the other team to the ground. It’s a lot of fun, and it will have up to 28 international teams taking part.

“It’s also the event I will be fighting in.

“The 10 v 10 event was launched four years ago and it’s our fastest-growing category.

“It involves a lot of movement and athleticism, and there’s also the craziest situation possible, where three guys will beat on one of their rivals until he falls to the floor – or not, if he has managed to escape. We also have a 16 v 16 category.”

M Leger said that when it came to the armour, “we have safety standards that sometimes make things a bit less authentic, but they have to be analogous to authentic material”. He added: “If, for example, we used iron, that most medieval armour was made off, we would have dead people every year.” The stainless-steel helmet must be at least 2mm thick. “That is actually very heavy for the medieval period,” he added. Each contestant’s hands are protected by steel-made gauntlets or riveted chainmail.

In an [Daily Record] interview last week, Joshua Emmerson, 32, a member of the Scottish Knight League, said: “This sport is the medieval revival of what actually happened in the Middle Ages.

“Manuscripts have shown it was a competitive sport in medieval Europe.

“Knights from all over would come to do combat and see who was the best fighter – we have just updated the safety aspect to make it modern-day compliant.”

He added: “There is a huge amount of fighters at this, so it will be the longest medieval tournament in history - it blows out the water anything held in the time of King Henry VIII [of England].

“We will be making history.”