Archaeology Notes
Event ID 713021
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Archaeology Notes
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/713021
NT24SE 4.00 25062 40725
NT24SE 4.01 2506 4072 Cist; Cross
(NT 2506 4072) Cross Kirk (NR) (remains of)
(NT 2506 4074) Remains of (NAT) Monastery (NR)
(Trinitarian) (NAT)
OS 25"map, (1965).
The ruins of the Cross Kirk, together with some fragments of conventual buildings, stand on a slight eminence in the N outskirts of Peebles, outside the medieval burgh.
The church was founded by Alexander III following the discovery of a cross on the site in 1261 (see NT24SE 4.1). It first comes on record in 1296, and was raised to conventual status as a house of Trinitarian friars in 1474, domestic buildings and a cloister being erected to the N of the church. The W tower was probably added at the same time. The church was burnt by the English in 1549, but the fabric appears to have been repaired before the dispersal of the friars in or about 1561, the church then being used as the parish church of Peebles. It was abandoned in 1784, when a new church was built (at NT 2503 4039 - see NT24SE 6). Of the 13th century nave, only the N wall stands to its original height; the E end of the S wall is fairly entire, but the W end is reduced to its lowest courses, above which a modern wall has been built as a boundary to the burial place of the Hays of Haystoun. The W gable wall rises to its full height at the junction with the N wall of the nave, the remainder being level with the first floor of the tower, which rises 50' high, and has incorporated 5 storeys. Except for a small part of the N wall of the chancel, the walls both of the chancel and sacristy are reduced to their lowest courses, and have disappeared in places. The remains came under guardianship of the Department of Environment in 1925, having carried out excavations there in 1923, exposing some fragments of the conventual buildings and of the E end of the church. RCAHMS 1967, visited 1959.
The remains are as described.
Visited by OS(SFS) 19 September 1974.
