Dornoch, Earl's Cross

NH89SW 2 8044 9040

(NH 8044 9040) Earl's Cross (NR)

OS 6" map, (1960)

The Thane's or Earl's Cross, is stated to have been erected as a memorial of the battle of Embo, fought about the year 1245, in which William first Earl of Sutherland defeated the Scandinavians but it belongs to a much later date. It is a tall shaft, expanded at the head, whereon rests a triangle of stone, perforated in the centre, a fragment of the original crosshead, which was circular and had arms expanding to the margin, with perforations between them. The cross is 7' 3 1/2" high. The edges of the shaft are chamfered, and at 4'1" above the ground is a projecting band, 10" deep, relieved on the E and W faces with a shield, that on the E charged with three stars of five points (two and one) for the Earl of Sutherland, that on the W indecipherable, but stated by Cordiner to have borne 'the armorial ensigns of Caithness'. The breadth of the shaft is 1'6", its thickness 8 1/2". The cross faces E and W. It is now enclosed within an iron railing.

C Cordiner 1780; C Cordiner 1788; Orig Paroch Scot 1855; R Pococke 1887; RCAHMS 1911, visited 1909.

Earl's Cross as described.

Visited by OS (A A), 23 March 1971.