Crail. View of Mercat Cross and south side of Marketgate.

Description Crail. View of Mercat Cross and south side of Marketgate.

Date c. 1890

Collection Papers of Erskine Beveridge, antiquarian, Dunfermline, Fife, Scotland

Catalogue Number SC 739280

Category On-line Digital Images

Copy of F 1928

Scope and Content Market Cross, Marketgate, Crail, Fife, from the north-east The market cross, the symbol of the burgh's authority, stands on the south side of Marketgate, a broad thoroughfare that once formed one of the largest medieval market-places in Europe. This photograph of the cross was taken by Erskine Beveridge c.1890. The square chamfered shaft of the cross is original, and dates from the early 17th-century. The carved capital, impressive unicorn finial and stepped base were added in the 19th century by a local architect, John Currie, possibly when the cross was re-erected on the south side of the street for Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee in 1887. The capital bears a shield carved with the arms of the burgh - a single-masted sailing boat with a furled sail, manned by seven sailors, and with a crescent moon and eight stars overhead. The market (or mercat in Scots) cross was erected in a Scottish burgh, generally in a wide street, as the focus of market activity and local ceremonies. Most examples date from after the Reformation in the 1560s, and have heraldic or other finials and not crosses as the name implies. Source: RCAHMS contribution to SCRAN.

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/collection/739280

File Format (TIF) Tagged Image File Format bitmap