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Publication Account
Date 1951
Event ID 1097879
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Publication Account
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1097879
THE GIRTH CROSS AND HOLYROOD SANCTUARY.
In front of the Abbey gatehouse rose the Girth Cross, also known as the South or Abbey Cross to distinguish it from another cross standing further W. Until after 1767 the Abbey Cross marked the W. limit of the Girth of Holyrood, the greatest sanctuary in Scotland and the last to disappear (13). The boundaries of the sanctuary were extensive, but the habitations in which the later refugees dwelt were clustered round Holyrood; and although those which stood in St. Anne's Yards. to the S.E. of the Palace have long since disappeared, some of the others still survive in the triangular group of old buildings, known as Abbey Strand, that stand between the site of theWatergate and the access to the gatehouse.
RCAHMS 1951
(13)On the sanctuary of Holyrood see O.E.C., xv, pp. 55-98.
