Scone (Scottish Gaelic: Sgàin; Scots: Scuin) is a town in Perth and Kinross, Scotland. The medieval town of Scone, which grew up around the monastery and royal residence, was abandoned in the early 19th century when the residents were removed and a new palace was built on the site by the Earl of Mansfield. Hence the modern village of Scone, and the medieval village of Old Scone, can often be distinguished.
Both sites lie in the historical province of Gowrie, as well as the old county of Perthshire. Old Scone was the historic capital of the Kingdom of Scotland. In the Middle Ages it was an important royal centre, used as a royal residence and as the coronation site of the kingdom’s monarchs. Around the royal site grew the town of Perth and the Abbey of Scone.
Constructing the new palace meant destroying the old town and moving its inhabitants to a new settlement. The new village was built in 1805 as a planned village (compare Evanton, built in 1807 by its landowner for similar motives), and originally called New Scone.
It is 1 1/4 miles (2 kilometres) east of the old location and 1 mi (1.5 km) further from Perth. Until 1997 the village was called “New Scone”, but is now officially called Scone. The village had 4,430 inhabitants according to the 2001 Census for Scotland, 84.33% of whom are Scottish; it is demographically old even compared with the rest of Scotland.
[caption id="attachment_219212" align="aligncenter" width="432"] Friedrich Schiller by Ludovike Simanowiz (1793 or 1794)[/caption][responsivevoice_but...
