Last Unicorn The A
14-YEAR-LONG project to recreate the lost tapestries of James V has been completed at Stirling Castle.
The final tapestry in the series, The Mystic Hunt of the Unicorn, woven by master weavers from West Dean Tapestry Studio, was unveiled at Stirling Castle to mark the culmination of the largest tapestry project ever undertaken in the UK in the last century.
The project was commissioned by Historic Scotland in 2001 as part of a wider project to restore the interiors of the palace of James V and show how they may have looked in the 1540s. At that time it was home to James’s wife, Mary of Guise, and their young daughter, Mary, Queen of Scots.
It was known from royal inventories that when James V built the palace he owned more than 100 tapestries, but there is no record of what happened to them. The inventories, however, described a set of tapestries depicting “the historie of the unicorne.”
From those clues the team began extensive research. It took them to the USA, and to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, which is home to a set of seven 15th century Flemish tapestries known as The Hunt of the Unicorn.
The result was the launch of a 14-year- long project which set out to reinterpret
and recreate the Hunt of the Unicorn tapestries. It was an enormous task, bringing together 18 weavers from across the world, to undertake the delicate work involved.
“It’s wonderful that the Stirling Tapestry project has now been completed aſter more than a decade of hard work and painstaking research,”
Tapestry in progress - detail 72 August 2015 Fiona Hyslop
Now, for the first time, art lovers will be able to see all seven tapestries together, marking the final chapter in the long journey to recreate the hangings within the palace of James V.
“It’s wonderful that the Stirling Tapestry project has now been completed aſter more than a decade of hard work and painstaking research,” said Fiona Hyslop, Cabinet Secretary for Culture, Europe and External Affairs.
The installation of the final tapestry marks the final element of a wider project to refurbish the interiors of the palace to how they may have looked in the 1540s. The palace re-opened its doors to the public in 2011.
Peter Buchanan, Project Manager for Historic Scotland, who oversaw the project from inception to completion, said: “While we may never know
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