It was from 1652 – 1660 that The Kirk of Kinneff in the northeast of Scotland was the repository of the Honours of Scotland (Crown, Sceptre and Sword).

The Honours had been smuggled out of Dunnottar Castle near Stonehaven where they had been taken for safe-keeping. Oliver Cromwell’s forces were very near the castle in May 1652 and it was imperative that the Honours should be removed from the castle as he would have destroyed them if he found them.

There are two competing accounts regarding how the Honours were taken from the castle. However it is a matter of historical record that the Rev James Grainger, minister of Kinneff Kirk, and his wife hid the Honours, first in the manse and then in the church until 1660 when King Charles II was restored to the throne.

Inside Kinneff Kirk there is a memorial stone in memory of the Rev James Grainger.

This reads as follows: Behold the spot where Grainger’s ashes lie, Who from besieged Dunnottar safe conveyed the insignia of Scotland’s Royalty And in this hallowed ground in secret laid Where he rests himself. Heaven shall bestow meet recompense on such desert as his: He who his country’s honour saved below Now wields a sceptre in the realm of bliss.

Later this year King Charles will be presented with the Honours of Scotland at a service in St Giles’ Cathedral. It was in St Giles’ on June 24 1953 when Queen Elizabeth II was presented with the Honours of Scotland. The minister of St Giles’ Cathedral at that time was the Very Rev Charles L Warr who was also the Dean of The Thistle and of The Chapel Royal of Scotland. In his autobiography, The Glimmering Landscape, Warr stated that to his ‘infinite regret,’ he omitted to invite the then minister of the Kirk of Kinneff to that historic service in 1953.

John Fyfe Anderson, Bishopton, Renfrewshire