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Ian Skelly explores the art and music of the one-time home of Mary Queen of Scots, featuring composers from James Oswald and Handel to Peter Maxwell Davies and Max Richter. Built on the site of a medieval monastery, Holyrood Palace was home to Scottish monarchs including James VI, who became James I of England. James’s mother, Mary Queen of Scots, also lived at Holyrood for part of her ultimately tragic life, and Ian discovers embroidery made by Mary while held captive by Elizabeth I. The Palace is also home to a chair inspired by Robert Burns’s poem Tam O’Shanter. Made for George IV, the chair sits in the Great Gallery where Sean Connery was knighted in 2000, on the walls of which hang 96 portraits of Scottish monarchs, all painted to resemble Charles II who commissioned them. Ian’s musical soundtrack includes pieces by James MacMillan, Max Richter, James Oswald, and Peter Maxwell Davies, Master of the Queen’s Music from 2004 until 2014.

2025 marks the 400th anniversary of the appointment of the first Master of the King’s Music, art dealer Nicholas Lanier, who built the foundations of what would become The Royal Collection. Today the Collection comprises some 700,000 pieces including major art works, manuscripts and instruments, from ancient times right up to the present day, spread over 13 royal residences in the UK.

In this landmark four-part series, Ian Skelly tours four of the most art-laden royal residences in the UK – Windsor Castle, Buckingham Palace, St James’s Palace and Holyrood Palace – to explore the stories and musical connections behind some of the most fascinating objects in the Royal Collection, giving listeners special behind-doors access to these history-steeped locations.

Producer: Graham Rogers