A portrait of veteran Nationalist Winnie Ewing will be unveiled today to mark a decade since the Scottish Parliament first met.

A portrait of veteran Nationalist Winnie Ewing will be unveiled today to mark a decade since the Scottish Parliament first met.

Dr Ewing, 79, whose political career spanned almost four decades, became an SNP MSP when Scots first went to the polls to elect a devolved Parliament.

As the oldest member, she chaired the first meeting on May 12, 1999, before a Presiding Officer was elected.

Opening the session, she said: "I want to begin with the words that I have always wanted either to say or to hear someone else say - the Scottish Parliament, which adjourned on March 25 1707, is hereby reconvened."

First elected as an MP in the 1967 Hamilton by-election, Dr Ewing also served as an MEP in the European Parliament, and stood down as a Highlands and Islands MSP in 2003.

She is also remembered for her words after first being chosen as an MP, when she declared: "Stop the world, Scotland wants to get on."

The portrait, by the late artist David Donaldson, has been loaned to the Parliament to commemorate the 10th anniversary of its first sitting.

Presiding Officer Alex Fergusson MSP said: "I am pleased to welcome Dr Ewing back to the Scottish Parliament on the 10th anniversary of the Parliament's first meeting.

"I know only too well how intimidating it can be to take the Presiding Officer's chair, so I can only imagine her feelings as she presided over the first meeting."

Dr Ewing is a former secretary and president of the Glasgow Bar Association.

With her late husband Stewart, she had three children, Fergus Ewing MSP, Annabelle Ewing MP, and Terry Ewing.

Today's event is one of a series being held in the run-up to the 10th anniversary of devolution.

Celebrations will culminate in a visit from the Queen to the Holyrood Parliament on July 1, exactly 10 years since she opened the new Parliament on the day it received full legislative powers.