Archaeology Notes
Event ID 725185
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Archaeology Notes
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/725185
NX34SE 3 3559 4288 and 3565 4289.
(NX 3559 4288) Cross (NR)
OS 6" map (1957)
In the grounds of Monreith House is a free-standing wheel-headed cross. It measures 7'6" x 1'6" diameter across the head, x 6" thick. It formerly stood on Court Hill at the Mower, the old Mansion House of the Barony of Monreith, and it has been surmised that its original site may have been Kirkmaiden (but see Reid 1948, below). Collingwood gives a 10th century date for this cross.
RCAHMS 1912; J E Allen and J Anderson 1903; W G Collingwood 1925
Sir Herbert Maxwell (in his 'Evening Memories') records that when Sir William Maxwell moved his residence from Dowies to Monreith in 1684 he decided to move the cross that stood beside the old house of Ballingreen on an elevation known as the Mowr (see NX34SE 18). In transporting it, the shaft was broken in two, and it was replaced on the Mower, where it remained until Sir Herbert's father set it up at Monreith House. Under guardianship.
R C Reid 1948
OS 25" 1908 records "Inscribed Stones" at this site. The other stone involved is an intermediate position for a cross found at Craiglemine, and now in the NMAS (IB 121) (See NX43NW 11).
J Stuart 1867
The cross 'A' is as described and illustrated.
Two other stones are situated nearby:-
'B' at NX 3559 4288 by the entrance to the house is 1.3m high by 0.4m by 0.2m. It bears a central groove with seventeen grooves either side. Its purpose is obscure.
'C' at NX 3565 4289 measures 1.0m high by 0.4m by 0.1m and bears the inscription IONHA and the date 1694. This is presumably a burial slab. Revised at 1:2500.
Visited by OS (IA) 1 February 1973
The cross "A" was removed in 1974 for restoration and is now at Whithorn Museum (Mrs Crabb, Monreith House, Port William). The stones "B" and "C" are as described in the previous field report.
"B" and "C" surveyed at 1:2500.
Visited by OS (TRG) 26 April 1977.