Among the antiquities of Argyleshire, the castle of Dunstaffnage ought undoubtedly to take the lead. It stands on Loch Etive, on a promontory jutting into the sea. The castle is said to have been founded by Errin, or Erinus, a Pictish monarch — contemporary with Cæsar — who called it after himself, Eronium. Whether this account be true or not, it certainly is a place of great antiquity, and one of the first seats of the Scottish princes. In this castle was long preserved the famous stone chair or seat — the Palladium of Scotland — said to have been brought out of Spain, where it was used as a seat of justice by Gatholus, who was coeval with Moses. It continued here and was used as the coronation chair of Kenneth II., who removed it to Scone. (The stone is said to have been Jacob’s pillow, and was left behind by the Jews when they fled out of Egypt. A remote ancestor of the Scottish kings married a daughter of one of the Pharaohs, and got it as her, or part of her, dower. They brought it to Carthage, thence to Spain, thence to Ireland, and then it came to Dunstaffnage.)
— Lord Archibald Campbell’s Records of Argyll (1885).
