Cross Kirk, Peebles

On 9 May 1241 a fine cross was found on the spot where the ruins of Cross Kirk stand today.

Soon after, a stone urn was found in the same place. It contained what some people thought to be the cremated remains of St Nicholas.

The site soon became associated with miracles and Alexander III paid for the first church here.

The church was built to house the cross and the shrine of the saint. It 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.

The church was active as a place of worship and pilgramage for 500 years. It saw a great deal of change over this time.

• In 1474 the church became a house for Trinitarian friars. Cloister ranges and the west tower were probably added about this time.

• In 1530 a yearly feast was established to celebrate the finding of the Holy Cross of Peebles.

• Disaster struck in 1549 when the Cross Kirk was burnt by the English, but it was repaired two years later.

• A new east gable was constructed along with galleries and three burial aisles in the mid-1600s.

The church was abandoned and unroofed in 1784, and by 1811 much of the south wall had fallen. Despite this, it remains is the best preserved urban friary in Scotland.