Note 246 — Chapter III · THE MONASTIC CHURCH IN IONA.

This account of Aidan’s consecration is contained in the older Life by Cummine, and repeated by Adamnan, B. iii. c. 6. In Smith’s Dictionary of Christian Antiquities, the author of the article Coronation says,—‘Aidan was made king by him on the celebrated Stone of Destiny, taken afterwards from Iona to Dunstaffnage, and thence to Scone,’ and refers to Adamnan; but there is not a syllable about the stone in Adamnan. For its removal from Iona to Dunstaffnage there is no authority whatever, and that from Dunstaffnage to Scone is part of the exploded fable originated by Hector Boece. The subject is fully discussed in the author’s tract on the ‘Coronation Stone.’