Dunkeld Lectern

The Dunkeld Lectern, also known in Scotland as the Holyrood Bird, is a medieval brass eagle lectern. It stands approximately 1.6 metres high and takes the form of a large eagle or phoenix with outspread wings, with the bird perched on an orb supported by a turned shaft. Engraved on the orb, between two depictions of lions and a mitre, is the Latin inscription "Georgius Creichton Episcopus Dunkeldensis" (transl. George Creichton Bishop of Dunkeld). It formerly featured three lions at its base, until 1972 when they were stolen temporarily.

The lectern was made in Italy in 1498 and given to Holyrood Abbey in Edinburgh in 1503. It was then looted from the abbey by the English army in 1544 in the Rough Wooing and taken south to St Stephen's Church, St Albans, England. It laid in a grave at the church for 106 years after being hidden during the English Civil War. Upon its reappearance, requests from Scotland for its repatriation, starting in the 18th century, were initially rebuffed. In 1984, over 400 years after it was first taken to England, the lectern was stolen from the church by Scottish nationalist group Siol nan Gaidheal and it did not reappear until May 1999, when it was anonymously delivered to Netherbow Arts Centre. Since then, it has been on display at the National Museum of Scotland (NMS).