Monks Rig, Font Stone

Monks Rig, Nine Mile Burn, Midlothian, cross-base

Measurements: L 0.97m, W 0.71m, H 0.38m

Stone type:

Place of discovery: NT 1758 5919

Present location: on Monks Rig beside the footpath.

Evidence for discovery: first recorded in 1794. The path was formerly known as the Monks’ Road, and in 1808 ‘the ornamented top’ of the cross was lying at the foot of the hill.

Present condition: worn, and there are usually coins left in the socket.

Description

This is a roughly dressed rectangular cross-base, with a rectangular hollowed socket, 0.51m by 0.31m and some 0.23m deep. It is quite plain but appears from the 1808 record to have held an ornamented cross.

Date range: uncertain.

References: OSA 1794 vol 10, 420; Coles 1899, 334-6.

Compiled by A Ritchie 2016

NT15NE 3 1758 5919.

(NT 1738 5919) Font Stone (NAT) Cross Socket (NR)

OS 6" map (1962)

The "Font Stone", on the crest of Monks Rig, is a roughly dressed rectangular stone, 3 ft 2 ins x 2 ft 4 ins x 1 ft 3 ins, with a rectangular hollow, tapering towards the bottom, cut out on the top side. It is the socket stone of a cross, the ornamented top of which was said to be still lying at the bottom of the rig in 1808.

In 1833, two shepherds levered over the stone and found a few copper coins, the date and subsequent history of which are unknown (J J Wilson 1891).

RCAHMS 1929, visited 1913; F R Coles 1899; OSA 1794