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Peebles, Cross Road, Cross Kirk

Cist (Bronze Age), Cross (Period Unknown)

Site Name Peebles, Cross Road, Cross Kirk

Classification Cist (Bronze Age), Cross (Period Unknown)

Canmore ID 51477

Site Number NT24SE 4.01

NGR NT 2506 4072

Datum OSGB36 - NGR

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/51477

Ordnance Survey licence number AC0000807262. All rights reserved.
Canmore Disclaimer. © Copyright and database right 2024.

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Administrative Areas

  • Council Scottish Borders, The
  • Parish Peebles
  • Former Region Borders
  • Former District Tweeddale
  • Former County Peebles-shire

Early Medieval Carved Stones Project

Cross Kirk 1, Peeblesshire, possible free-standing cross

Measurements:

Stone type:

Place of discovery: NT 2506 4072

Present location: lost.

Evidence for discovery: Fordun records the tradition that in 1261 ‘a magnificent and venerable cross’ was found lying on a stone inscribed ‘locus sancti Nicolai episcopi’, and that the Cross Kirk was built on the spot to commemorate it.

Present condition:

Description

There are no details of what was possibly an Anglo-Saxon high cross.

Date:

References: RCAHMS 1967, no 377.

ompiled by A Ritchie 2016

Archaeology Notes

NT24SE 4.01 2506 4072.

Fordun, (Scotichronicon, Goodall ed. 1759) writing in the middle of the 14th century, giving an account of the circumstances leading to the foundation of the Cross Kirk (at NT 2506 4072), states that on 9th May 1261 a "magnificent and venerable cross" probably of wood or metal (J S Richardson 1948) was found, lying on a stone inscribed "locus sancti Nicolai episcopi". This saint is probably St Nicholas of Myra, and Fordun's account strongly suggests the stone may have been an Early Christian stone of the same type as the "Petrus" stone at Whithorn, though the saint's cult did not become popular in western Europe until the 12th century.

Fordun adds that not long after the above find was made, three or four yards away was found "a stone urn containing the ashes and bones of a human body, apparently dismembered". Interpreted in terms of modern archaeology, Fordun's account suggests that this discovery was in fact of a Bronze Age short cist. This cist (see plan with NT24SE 4) appears to have been preserved beneath the S wall of the church as part of the shrine built for the cross, to which pilgrimages were made until the beginning of the 17th century.

RCAHMS 1967, visited 1959 and 1964.

No further information.

Visited by OS(SFS) 19 September 1974.

Activities

Sbc Note

Visibility: Evidence for this site, or the origins of this site, comes from documentary sources. Nothing may be visible at this location.

Information from SBC.

References

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