By Andrew Jarret

ARBROATH’S HISTORIC abbey will be used again as the backdrop for a piece of more modern history tomorrow when the clocks are turned back just 56 years.

The imposing twelfth-century edifice, famous for its role in the Declaration of Scottish Independence in 1320, hit the world headlines again on April 11, 1951, when the heist to top all others was finally brought to a surprise end in its ruinous grounds.

On that day, four Nationalist students tipped off the media that Arbroath Abbey was where they could find the Stone of Destiny, stolen in an audacious raid on Westminster Abbey on Christmas Day 1950.

The tale of the theft, the subsequent search and the symbolic discovery of the artefact in Arbroath, is the subject of a new film by American director Charlie Martin Smith, best known for his acting in films like The Untouchables and American Grafitti.

Shooting of the movie, which features “Casanova” actor Charlie Cox and former “24” star Kate Mara, is currently taking place in Glasgow. The £6 million production switches to Arbroath today, however, where the famous scenes of the Stone’s eventual discovery will be re-enacted.

The movie, billed as “adventure comedy,” is being made the by The Mob Film Company, who recently produced Hogfather for Sky TV.

The Stone of Destiny was used for centuries in the coronations of the monarchs of Scotland until it was captured in 1296 by Edward I, the so-called “Hammer of the Scots,” and taken to Westminster Abbey where it resided for over six and a half centuries.

Stone of Destiny tells the true story of how on Christmas Day 1950, Ian Hamilton, Kay Matheson, Gavin Vernon and Alan Stuart, all young members of the Covenant home rule movement, took the stone from Westminster Abbey under the noses of the police and hid it in Kent for a few weeks before returning it north to Scotland draped in a Saltire.

The film is based on the book The Taking of the Stone of Destiny, written by Ian Hamilton himself.

Filming in Arbroath tomorrow will necessitate the closure of the Abbey Street environs, with production crews setting up at 7.30am and shooting expected to take place until around 7pm.

The four students, who were never prosecuted for their “theft,” were all later invited to see the Stone moved to its current home at Edinburgh Castle in 1996, but only Matheson and Vernon attended.

Ian Hamilton is now 81. The former Glasgow University law student went on to become one of Scotland’s leading QCs. He wrote about his exploits in a book called A Touch Of Treason but has generally tried to distance himself from the incident. He is now retired, living in the Oban area.

Kay Matheson was a domestic science teacher at the time of the plot. The Gaelic scholar, who lost two toes during the heist after the Stone was dropped on her foot, went back to teaching after the raid, and today the 78-year-old lives in a nursing home in Wester Ross.

Gavin Vernon, an engineering expert, emigrated to Canada in the Sixties and later joked he “never had to buy a beer again” after news of his deeds emerged in his adopted homeland. He died in 2004, aged 77.

Alan Stuart, the quiet member of the group, has never publicly spoken of his role that night. His whereabouts remain a mystery.