A piece of the Stone of Destiny which was feared lost after being presented to Alex Salmond as a personal gift has turned up in a cupboard at the SNP’s headquarters.
The Scottish Government’s top official let Mr Salmond keep the fragment when he was given it in 2008 by the son of one of those behind its infamous removal from Westminster Abbey.
It came from the legal scholar Professor Sir Neil MacCormick, whose father helped the four Nationalist students who “liberated” the Stone on Christmas Day 1950.
How the former First Minister came by the artefact was revealed in Scottish cabinet papers released by National Records of Scotland on January 1.
READ MORE: Alex Salmond allowed to keep part of Stone of Destiny
It sparked a hunt for the object - and questions about the propriety of Mr Salmond keeping it.
Scottish Secretary Alister Jack and his predecessor Michael Forsyth said Mr Salmond should not have accepted the gift in the first place, and called for it to be put on display alongside the rest of the stone at Edinburgh Castle.
Mr Salmond, the FM from 2007 until 2014, said he passed the piece to the SNP for safekeeping after he "checked" with Historic Scotland that it wasn’t wanted for its collections.
However, the conservation quango said it had "no records" of that check taking place.
Our sister title, the National, then reported how multiple sources said that they had seen the fragment at party headquarters.
After initially being unable to locate the “missing” fragment, the SNP has now found what appears to be part of the Stone in a cupboard at its HQ near the Scottish Parliament.
Mr Salmond said it would be a “red-faced surprise to the blue Tory gang".
Tory MSP Murdo Fraser said one of Scotland's most important cultural artefacts should never have been in a cupboard in an SNP office.
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.
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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 Lord Forsyth.
According to Scottish cabinet minutes from September 2008, Mr Salmond was told he could hold on to the artefact by Permanent Secretary Sir John Elvidge, who agreed the fragment “need not be surrendered to Historic Scotland”.
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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