Alex Salmond was allowed to keep part of the Stone of Destiny after the son of one of those behind its legendary removal from Westminster Abbey gave it to him as a gift.
According to files released today by the National Records of Scotland, the then First Minister was told he could hold on to the artefact by the Scottish Government’s top official in 2008.
Permanent Secretary Sir John Elvidge agreed the fragment “need not be surrendered to Historic Scotland”, the government’s conservation quango.
Sir John gave Mr Salmond the nod after he was presented with a piece of the rock by his former special adviser, Professor Sir Neil MacCormick.
Prof Sir Neil’s father, John MacCormick, who helped found the SNP, advised and bankrolled the Glasgow University students who took the Stone from the Abbey on Christmas Day 1950.
The final item of the Scottish Cabinet minutes of 16 September 2008 is headed “The Stone of Destiny”.
It reads: “The First Minister said that he had met with Professor Sir Neil MacCormick who had presented him with a fragment of the Stone of Destiny as a personal gift.
“The Permanent Secretary agreed that the fragment need not be surrendered to Historic Scotland.”
The Scottish Ministerial Code of 2008 advised ministers to seek the advice of the Permanent Secretary in cases where there was a question about accepting a gift.
Gifts given to ministers in their ministerial capacity became the property of the government, but low-value personal gifts could be kept by ministers
The minutes do not record the size of the fragment or its current home.
At the time he gave Mr Salmond the piece of rock, Prof Sir Neil, a former SNP MEP and distinguished legal academic, was suffering from terminal cancer. He died in April 2009.
Its origins unknown, but linked by legend to ancient Egypt, the Stone of Destiny was used as the crowning seat of Scottish kings at Scone between the 9th and 13th centuries, before Edward I took it to Westminster in 1296, where it was used to crown English monarchs.
In 1950, four students - Ian Hamilton, Gavin Vernon, Kay Matheson and Alan Stuart - broke into Westminster Abbey and reclaimed it for Scotland to further the cause of independence.
The sandstone lump broke in two during the raid, but both pieces were ultimately reunited and left at Arbroath Abbey covered in a Saltire in April 1951 and the police tipped off.
John MacCormick, a Nationalist lawyer and rector of Glasgow University, reportedly gave the group £50 to help them with the raid and signed a note testifying to the Stone’s authenticity.
The Stone was returned to Scotland in 1996 thanks to the efforts of the then Conservative Scottish Secretary Michael Forsyth, who said the decision was a “no brainer”.
The Stone is now displayed in the Crown Room at Edinburgh Castle, and only returns to Westminster Abbey for coronations, as it did last year for the Coronation of King Charles III.
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