These still resounding words, from the Declaration of Arbroath
of 1320, are inscribed on the wall of the Scotland Defined gallery.
The Declaration, an appeal for freedom in the face of conquest by
the English, defined the nation of Scotland to the world.
Treasures of an emerging nation
Scotland contains objects linked to land, people, language,
belief, kingsip and the emergence of the Kingdom of Scotland. It
showcases some of our most precious objects: treasures that
illustrate the emerging Scottish nation and the different peoples
who became a part of it.
Peoples of Scotland
In this gallery you'll encounter the people who made up the
Kingdom of the Scots. The Picts, the Angles, the Britons, the
Scots, the Vikings and the Anglo-Normans are all here, represented
by the monuments, jewellery, artworks and everyday objects they
left behind.
Early Christianity
Near the sandstone cross-slab from Invergowrie in Angus,
evidence of both Christian and pre-Christian Scotland, is the tiny
Monymusk reliquary, one of the Museum's most important objects.
Probably dating from the eighth century, it is linked with St
Columba, a key figure in the spread of Christianity in Scotland,
and with Robert the Bruce, the hero king who defeated an English
army at the battle of Bannockburn in 1314, although recent research
has questioned this tradition and highlighted there is very little
evidence to substantiate it.
Treasured objects
Pass under the stone arch from Forteviot in Perthshire and come
face to face with an oak statue of St Andrew, the patron saint of
Scotland. From about the 13th century St Andrew and his cross, the
saltire, have been symbols of the Scottish nation.
To your left is the Queen Mary harp, or clarsach, a superb
example of medieval West Highland art. The harps is said to have
been given by Mary, Queen of Scots, to Beatrix Gardyne of Banchory
while on a hunting trip in Atholl.
Behind the harp are the famous Lewis chessmen. Found on the
Hebridean island of Lewis in 1831, they are probably the most
well-known archaeological find from Scotland.