1979 Dunfermline Abbey - A notable Royal visit

An historic service was held in Dunfermline Abbey on 3rd June 1979 to mark the 650th anniversary of the death of Robert the Bruce, King of Scots. The ceremony was attended by the Duke of Rothesay (the Prince of Wales' principal Scottish title) and other Scottish notables.

"As every schoolboy knows," Bruce's heart reposes in Melrose Abbey, but his body is buried in Dunfermline Abbey. Sir Walter Scott in his "Tales of a Grandfather", gives a graphic account of how this came about, and how, when workmen were busy on the restoration of Dunfermline Abbey, they came apon a skeleton which must have been that of Scotland's hero-king, because of the rich cloth in which the body had been draped and - more significantly - because the heart had obviously been removed.

In the picture Prince Charles is talking to a group of personages who had attended the service. This group consists of (left to right) The Lord Lyon King of Arms, Sir James Moncrieffe Grant, KC. VO. WS. (carrying the Lyon flag in his father's stead); Lord Scrymgeour (carrying the St Andrew Flag); the Earl of Lauderdale and Sir Iain Moncrieff of that Ilk, Bart., the Albany Herald. Behind the Minister of the Abbey, the Rev. Stuart Macpherson are the Right Honourable George Younger, Secretary of State for Scotland, PC, MP and Lord Kilmeny, Lord Lieutenant of Fife. Behind them again are the Earl of Errol, Hereditary High Constable of Scotland, and the Duke of Argyll, Hereditary Master of the Household in Scotland.