The Villagers November 2013

Stirling Castle Tapestries - almost complete!

The penultimate of seven specially commissioned Stirling Castle tapestries has been added to those already in place in the Royal Palace. The picture shows Lynsey Haworth (Regional Collections Manager at Historic Scotland) overseeing the installation of the Unicorn Leaps tapestry in the Renaissance Palace at Stirling Castle. The tapestry is the sixth in a series of seven medieval tapestries – which together depict the story of The Hunt of the Unicorn - to be recreated for the Palace using both centuries-old craftsmanship and new technology.

The project was launched in 2001 by Historic Scotland in partnership with the Historic Scotland Foundation and the Quinque Foundation of the United States of America with replicas being woven by the renowned West Dean Tapestry Studio both at Stirling Castle and at West Dean in the south of England.

The series is based on a set from 14951505 which is in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Six tapestries are now in place in the Palace – once home to the infant Mary Queen of Scots – with the seventh due for completion in autumn 2014. www.historic-scotland.gov.uk Picture by Donald MacLeod 24