Accessibility

Font Size

100% 150% 200%

Background Colour

Default Contrast
Close Reset

Ninewells, Macduff's Cross

Boundary Marker (Period Unassigned), Cross (Period Unassigned)

Site Name Ninewells, Macduff's Cross

Classification Boundary Marker (Period Unassigned), Cross (Period Unassigned)

Alternative Name(s) Whinnybank; Newburgh, Macduff's Cross

Canmore ID 30145

Site Number NO21NW 9

NGR NO 2271 1678

Datum OSGB36 - NGR

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/30145

Ordnance Survey licence number AC0000807262. All rights reserved.
Canmore Disclaimer. © Copyright and database right 2024.

Toggle Aerial | View on large map

Digital Images

Administrative Areas

  • Council Fife
  • Parish Newburgh
  • Former Region Fife
  • Former District North East Fife
  • Former County Fife

Archaeology Notes

NO21NW 9 2271 1678

See also NO21NW 37.

(NO 2271 1678) Macduff's Cross (NR)

Cup Marked Stone (NR)

OS 6" map, (1959)

Macduff's Cross is a sandstone boulder about 3ft 3ins high by 3ft 6ins wide, roughly cubical, resting on an earthen platform and surrounded by a setting of smaller stones erected by Newburgh Town Council in 1851. (A Laing 1876).

The top, marked with distinct cups (formed by the weathering out of nodules of iron pyrites) (J Stuart 1856) from 1 1/2 to 3ins in width and from 1/2 to 1 1/2 ins in depth, is slightly hollowed although there is no indication of a socket, despite the current story that the cross itself was thrown down and destroyed by Reformers in 1559, and the report by Gardon (A Gordon 1727) of a socket or cavity in 1727, not seen by Stuart.

According to the RCAHMS, the name, currently in popular use, does not occur in local records until 1814 but Skene, in 1641, wrote of "the Cross of Clan Makduffe" and described the right of sanctuary at the cross for members of the clan. It was described as " our ancient.. march stone" by Sir Thomas Balfour, who died in 1657 (RCAHMS 1933). Skene saw the stones of the cross inscribed with "sundry barbarous words and verses", which had disappeared by 1648 and Sibbald recorded the date '1059' and some unintelligible letters of which he gave two equally dubious versions, from a drawing copied from notes given to Sir James Balfour, (which show a simple outline elevation of a Greek cross on a square base {R Sibbald 1710}).

When the field was first ploughed, a 'rude sort of pavement' discovered on the hillock, 30 paces south of the cross was thought to be the floor of a cell or oratory associated with the Cross (A Laing 1876).

A Gordon 1727; J Stuart 1856; A Laing 1876; RCAHMS 1933; R Sibbald 1710.

Macduff's Cross (name confirmed locally) is a cubic boulder set on a circular platform and is as described by the RCAHMS and Stuart. The"cup marks"are the results of weathering.

Two fragments of ornamented sandstone at Easter Clunie (NO21NW 37) alleged to be part of the cross, are probably 8th/10th century.

30m to the S, at NO 2271 1675, is a slight knoll, but no trace of the "pavement" described by A Laing (1876) exists.

Visited by OS (J L D) 26 October 1956 and (J P) 3 June 1970.

Probably a boundary marker.

(Undated) information on OS record card.

Macduff's Cross. Large sandstone boulder with eight cupmarks on top.

J Gifford 1988.

Activities

Field Visit (28 May 1925)

Cup-marked Boulder, “Macduff's Cross”.

In the pass leading to Strathearn, at an elevation of over 400 feet above sea-level and about 1 ½ miles south-west of the town of Newburgh, is a large sandstone boulder, which rests on an earthen platform surrounded by a comparatively modern circular setting of smaller stones. The boulder measures on an average 3 feet 3 inches high by 3 feet 6 inches wide, with a girth at base of 15 feet 5 inches and at top of 12 feet 9 inches. It is roughly cubical in shape, tapering somewhat from the base to a slightly hollowed top, where it is distinctly cupmarked. The cups vary from 1 ½ to 3 inches in width and from ½ inch to 1 ½ inches in depth. The name "Macduff's Cross", by which the stone is now popularly known, does not occur in local records until 1814, and it is more than doubtful whether the boulder is really the base of a cross. There is not the slightest indication that it has ever been socketed for a shaft, despite the current story that the cross itself was thrown down arid destroyed by the Reformers in 1559 on their way from Perth to Cupar. Sir James Balfour of Denmyln calls it, "Our ancient Limitt or march stone which devydit this Countrey [of Fife] from the Countrey palatine of Stratherne” (1).

RCAHMS 1933, visited 28 May 1925.

(1) Denmilne MSS., National Library. Cf. also Laing's Lindores Abbey and its Burgh of N ewburgh, p. 320.

References

MyCanmore Image Contributions


Contribute an Image

MyCanmore Text Contributions