Edinburgh’s Mercat Cross

While walking the Royal Mile, look out for the Mercat Cross, the large octagonal structure that is one of the most characteristic sights of the Old Town. You’ll stop here on our free tour of the Royal Mile and Greyfriars.

In the heart of the Royal Mile

In most Scottish cities and towns you will find a market cross, or mercat cross, which marked the place where the town market was held, and where townspeople came to buy and sell goods, meet their neighbours and exchange news. You can imagine how these were once the heart of each town!

Edinburgh’s Mercat Cross is easy to find, right on the Royal Mile next to St Giles’ Cathedral. Look closely and, not far away, you’ll see its original position, marked out in the cobblestones: the old cross was removed in the late 18th century to make way for carriages on the Royal Mile.

This octagonal stone structure is topped by a unicorn, Scotland’s national animal. It was also where public announcements were made, and where punishments and executions were sometimes carried out!

Royal proclamations are still read from the platform of the cross, for example when a new monarch comes to the throne, as with King Charles III in 2022.

Other mercat crosses around Edinburgh

In the Old Town you’ll find another, much smaller and simpler mercat cross next to Canongate Kirk. Today Canongate is part of the Royal Mile, but it was a separate burgh outside Edinburgh’s old city walls, with its own council until it was absorbed into the city in 1856. As proof of its independent past, you can also see the Canongate Tolbooth.

Another lovely market cross near Edinburgh is in the neighbouring town of Musselburgh: a very simple one next to the old town hall.

Nearby, in Prestonpans, also in East Lothian, the Preston Mercat Cross is much larger than Musselburgh’s. Unlike most Scottish crosses, it is still in its original location and, like Edinburgh’s, is topped by a unicorn.

Also close to the capital, in Inverkeithing, a small town in Fife on the other side of the Firth of Forth, you can see one of the oldest market crosses in Scotland, from the 14th century.

Some crosses, like the one at Dalmeny on the outskirts of Edinburgh, are not really old market crosses: this one, for example, is a memorial to the Scottish soldiers who died in the First World War.

On your travels around Scotland, keep your eyes open and you’ll find market crosses in almost every town, some of them very curious.