We are delighted to be able to give Heads and Tales readers a sneak preview of some of the stained glass that will be a striking feature of the palace decoration. Made by Glasgow-based stained glass artists and restorers Linda Cannon and Rab MacInnes, it is exquisitely detailed showing the heraldry of James V and his French queen Mary of Guise.



The pair have done extensive research into the styles of artists who may have been an influence in the making of the original stained glass windows, back in the mid 16th century. To do this they travelled to France and toured historic sites where there is surviving stained glass commissioned by the Guise, whose money helped finance the palace. Once complete, the new glass will be used in 26 windows throughout the six refurbished royal apartments.

Historic Scotland photographer David Henrie has been following the complex and painstaking work involved in turning designs on paper into the actual coloured glass that will go in the palace. Our sequence of pictures shows the transition from fragments of coloured glass, to the half finished item pegged out using nails, and finally the completed panels.

The painting of the apartments is progressing very well and the trompe l'oeil, which uses two-dimensional painting to fool the eye into seeing 3D images, is looking superb. The technique was the height of fashion when the palace was first built, so has been extensively used in the refurbishment.



Delivery has been taken of some of the hand-knotted carpets commissioned from Mannam Carpets of Lahore. The company are experts in historic designs with four generations of experience and other clients have included the Tower of London. Research for the palace carpets was carried out by studying surviving 16th-century examples at the V&A. Artwork was also used, and one is a copy of a carpet that Henry VIII of England is seen standing on in a portrait. Another is inspired by one being leaned on by the two characters in Hans Holbein the Younger’s The Ambassadors, of 1533, which now hangs in the National Gallery in London.

In keeping with the times many of the carpets are small – though a couple of the ones in the palace will be a very impressive 2.3m by 4.3m. Such exotic items would have been incredibly rare and expensive in Renaissance Scotland, probably having been brought on pack animals and small ships all the way from Turkey, then the heart of the Ottoman Empire.

Most carpet owners would have hung them on their walls or draped them over furniture. Only the very richest would have them on the floor to be stood on. The carpets in the palace will be used to cover the diases on which the royal chairs of estate were placed – and another will be in front of the queen’s magnificent four-poster bed.