Mercat (Market) Cross

The Mercat Cross is the marker in the middle of the High Street, just north of Guildhall Street, that tells you this was a royal burgh with the right to hold a market. What you see now is a layered object. Historic Environment Scotland records a stepped base from the re-erection of 1868, a shaft of 1992, and a carved unicorn that may be a much-restored 17th-century carving. Before 1992 a shaft dated 1695 was still in place. The Dunfermline Press recorded that Joseph Noel Paton designed a carved stone as a mounting for the unicorn in 1868.

The cross has moved about. It was removed in 1752, and the pillar was built into the wall of a nearby house. It was re-erected in 1868, and in 1992 it was put back here, on what is believed to have been its original site of 1396, beside the former Guildhall. That civic pairing — market cross and guildhall steeple — is the point of standing here, even if the upper parts are later or restored.

You don’t need a ticket or a guidebook. It’s on the public street, Category B listed, and it’s at its best if you look at it with the Guildhall and the slope down towards the Abbey in mind. Don’t climb it; it’s a listed monument in everyday traffic. If you’re walking the Heritage Quarter, this is the burgh’s old centre of gravity, a few minutes from the City Chambers and the Louise Carnegie Gates.