Peebles town steeped in History. The Cross Kirk!
On the 9th May 1241, a fine cross was found on the site of The Cross Kirk. Soon after, a stone urn was found on the same site, containing what some people thought were the cremated remains of St Nicholas. The site was soon associated with miracles, and Alexander III King of Scotland paid for the first church to be constructed there.
The church was built to house the cross and the shrine of the saint and remained a pilgrimage centre until the early 1600s. It was a simple rectangle with a thick-walled, vaulted vestry to the north.
Excavations in 1924 found a stone cist under the shrine of St Nicholas, containing fragments of bone. This may have been the “saint’s grave” discovered in the 1200s.
Alteration and adaptation
The church changed significantly during the 500 years it was active as a place of worship:
it became a house for Trinitarian friars in 1474 who were also known as the red friars. Cloister ranges and the west tower were thought to have been added around this time.
in 1549 the Cross Kirk was burnt by English raiders but seems to have been repaired two years later.
in 1656 the chancel was abandoned and a new east gable was constructed. Galleries and three burial aisles were also added.
The church was abandoned and unroofed in 1784, and by 1811 much of the south wall had collapsed. But it is the best-preserved urban friary in Scotland.
Cross Kirk may be a site of Bronze Age, early Christian and medieval religious values and as such is an exciting example of how different ages have interacted with remains of the past. The Cross Kirk stands in a slightly wooded enclosure in a quiet residential area to the northwest of the centre of Peebles off the A72.
For more about this historical Peebles treasure:
