<< Our Photo Pages >> Cockburnspath Cross - Ancient Cross in Scotland in Scottish Borders
Submitted by Anne T on Tuesday, 02 October 2018 Page Views: 2248
Early Medieval (Dark Age)Site Name: Cockburnspath Cross Alternative Name: Cockburnspath Mercat CrossCountry: Scotland
NOTE: This site is 2.982 km away from the location you searched for.
County: Scottish Borders Type: Ancient Cross
Nearest Town: Berwick upon Tweed Nearest Village: Cockburnspath
Map Ref: NT7743071100
Latitude: 55.932430N Longitude: 2.362821W
Condition:
5 | Perfect |
4 | Almost Perfect |
3 | Reasonable but with some damage |
2 | Ruined but still recognisable as an ancient site |
1 | Pretty much destroyed, possibly visible as crop marks |
0 | No data. |
-1 | Completely destroyed |
5 | Superb |
4 | Good |
3 | Ordinary |
2 | Not Good |
1 | Awful |
0 | No data. |
5 | Can be driven to, probably with disabled access |
4 | Short walk on a footpath |
3 | Requiring a bit more of a walk |
2 | A long walk |
1 | In the middle of nowhere, a nightmare to find |
0 | No data. |
5 | co-ordinates taken by GPS or official recorded co-ordinates |
4 | co-ordinates scaled from a detailed map |
3 | co-ordinates scaled from a bad map |
2 | co-ordinates of the nearest village |
1 | co-ordinates of the nearest town |
0 | no data |
Internal Links:
External Links:
I have visited· I would like to visit
Anne T visited on 29th Sep 2018 - their rating: Cond: 3 Amb: 3 Access: 5 Cockburnspath Mercat Cross: Before coming to Cockburnspath, we'd visited the really beautiful Cove, with its smuggler's caves. We'd had to park in the village and follow the single track road running along the top of the cliffs to an old mine tunnel which formed a fun, but very dark, shortcut through to the cove. The bedding planes in the rocks here were fantastic - no wonder James Hutton found the solution to his unconformities only a few miles down the coast. The harbour looks like it might have come straight off an 18th century film set, and there was also a sea arch with a large, round hole in it. Brilliant.
By the time we got to Cockburnspath, only a few miles away, the light was starting to fade rapidly. Parking outside the post office (to avoid the car starring in more of my photographs!), I started to photograph the cross, only to find omeone had left a half eaten pack of McDonalds chips on the base of the stone; we ended up moving these and throwing them away in a nearby bin (yeuk). We also had a look at the churchyard, which had old grave stones, but at this time of night, couldn’t get in. The church had particularly heavy stone slabs used to roof it. We later found the same at Dunglass.
The notice on the side of the cross reads: “Cockburnspath. This Cross was erected in 1503 by King James IV of Scotland in celebration of his marriage to Princess Margaret Tudor, to whom he presented the lands of Cockburnspath as a dowry. The Princess was the sister of King Henry VIII of England and this union of the Scots Thistle and the Tudor Rose was to mark the start of a new and lasting peace, only shattered ten years later by the Battle of Flodden in 1513. / The Cross was repaired with the help of the Regional Council, but mostly by the loyal generosity of the people of this village.”
After seeing this cross, we hopped over the border to East Lothian to see Dunglass Collegiate Church, where we arrived to find a wedding in full swing, and needed torches to look round the inside of this ruined church. Definitely not a chance of getting to see the standing stones nearby at this time of the evening.
This mercat or market cross is recorded as Canmore ID 58853. The cross stands in the middle of the village, at the junction of Hoprigg Street with Callander Place, opposite the entrance to St Helen's Church, in what once must have been the village green, but is now just part of the road.
The cross shaft stands 10ft 4ins high on top of a stepped base of three tiers of stone topped by a socket stone; the socket stone measures 2ft 10ins square and is 10inshigh.
Restored in 1908, it was originally erected "by King James IV of Scotland in celebration of his marriage to Princess Margaret Tudor, to whom he presented the lands of Cockburnspath as a dowry. The Princess was the sister of King Henry VIII of England and this union of the Scots Thistle and the Tudor Rose was to mark the start of a new and lasting peace, only shattered ten years later by the Battle of Flodden in 1513. / The Cross was repaired with the help of the Regional Council, but mostly by the loyal generosity of the people of this village."
The two wider faces (east and west) of the head of the cross bear the emblems of thistles; the other two faces Tudor roses.
You may be viewing yesterday's version of this page. To see the most up to date information please register for a free account.
Do not use the above information on other web sites or publications without permission of the contributor.
Nearby Images from Geograph Britain and Ireland:
The above images may not be of the site on this page, they are loaded from Geograph.
Please Submit an Image of this site or go out and take one for us!
Click here to see more info for this site
Nearby sites
Click here to view sites on an interactive OS mapKey: Red: member's photo, Blue: 3rd party photo, Yellow: other image, Green: no photo - please go there and take one, Grey: site destroyed
Download sites to:
KML (Google Earth)
GPX (GPS waypoints)
CSV (Garmin/Navman)
CSV (Excel)
To unlock full downloads you need to sign up as a Contributory Member. Otherwise downloads are limited to 50 sites.
Turn off the page maps and other distractions
Nearby sites listing. In the following links * = Image available
3.0km E 98° St. Helen's on the Lea (Old Cambus)* Sculptured Stone (NT8037870676)
5.9km SE 138° Harelawside Rock Art (NT814667)
5.9km SE 134° Winding Cairn Cairn (NT81666691)
6.4km ESE 105° Dowlaw (Harlie Darlies)* Misc. Earthwork (NT83636941)
7.1km SSE 149° Grantshouse Rock Art* Rock Art (NT8165)
8.0km E 100° Dowlaw (Lowrie Knowes)* Misc. Earthwork (NT85376970)
8.5km SSW 196° Shannabank Hill Hillfort (NT75096292)
9.6km NW 310° Broxmouth Hill Fort* Hillfort (NT7011177388)
9.8km WNW 297° Doon Hill Dunbar* Ancient Village or Settlement (NT6868775539)
10.7km S 173° Elba copper mines* Ancient Mine, Quarry or other Industry (NT787605)
10.8km S 181° Edin's Hall* Broch or Nuraghe (NT7724060310)
10.9km WNW 300° Easter Broomhouse* Standing Stone (Menhir) (NT6800876615)
11.0km WSW 242° Bothwell Water (Cranshaws) Natural Stone / Erratic / Other Natural Feature (NT67656598)
11.1km SSE 162° Drakemire hillforts* Hillfort (NT80726051)
11.1km WNW 294° St John's Well (Spott)* Holy Well or Sacred Spring (NT67277561)
11.3km WNW 291° Witches' Stone (Spott)* Holy Well or Sacred Spring (NT66917520)
11.4km S 184° Cockburn Law Hillfort* Hillfort (NT76565975)
11.4km S 182° Cockburn Law Settlement* Ancient Village or Settlement (NT76915969)
11.9km S 169° Preston Cleugh Fort* Hillfort (NT79555941)
11.9km E 99° Earn's Heugh* Promontory Fort / Cliff Castle (NT8921069130)
11.9km ESE 102° Westerside* Ancient Village or Settlement (NT89136866)
12.0km ESE 103° Westloch House West* Ancient Village or Settlement (NT8912168407)
12.5km ESE 104° Westloch House East* Ancient Village or Settlement (NT89556792)
12.6km WSW 252° Yadlee* Stone Circle (NT65406732)
12.6km E 101° Coldingham Loch Fort* Hillfort (NT89886868)
View more nearby sites and additional images