Aberdeen's Mercat Cross
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Aberdeen's Mercat Cross
Aberdeen's Mercat Cross was built in 1686 by John Montgomery, an Aberdeen architect. It is in the Castlegate area in the old burgh of New Aberdeen. This open-arched structure, 21 ft (6 m) in diameter and 18 ft (5 m) high, is a large hexagonal base from the centre of which rises a shaft with a Corinthian capital, on which is the royal unicorn. The base is highly decorated, including medallions illustrating Scottish monarchs from James I to James VII and is supported by a series of open semi-circular arcades. According to local legend, the ghost of a unicorn can be seen to circle the Castlegate when a full moon is visible. During the Jacobite rising of 1715 The Jacobite rising of 1715 ( ; or 'the Fifteen') was the attempt by James Francis Edward Stuart, James Edward Stuart (the Old Pretender) to regain the thrones of Kingdom of England, England, Kingdom of Ireland, Ireland and Kingdom of Scotland ... James Stuart, the Old Pretender, was declared king at the cros ...
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Aberdeen Market Cross
Aberdeen ( ; ; ) is a port city in North East Scotland, and is the List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, third most populous Cities of Scotland, Scottish city. Historically, Aberdeen was within the historic county of Aberdeenshire (historic), Aberdeenshire, but is now separate from the council area of Aberdeenshire. Aberdeen City Council is one of Scotland's 32 Local government in Scotland, local authorities (commonly referred to as ''councils''). Aberdeen has a population of for the main urban area and for the wider List of towns and cities in Scotland by population#Settlements, settlement including outlying localities, making it the United Kingdom's List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, 39th most populous built-up area. Aberdeen has a long, sandy coastline and features an oceanic climate, with cool summers and mild, rainy winters. Aberdeen received royal burgh status from David I of Scotland (1124–1153), which transformed the city economically. The tr ...
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Mercat Cross
A mercat cross is the Scots language, Scots name for the market cross found frequently in Scotland, Scottish cities, towns and villages where historically the right to hold a regular market or fair was granted by the monarch, a bishop or a Baron#Scotland, baron. It therefore served a secular purpose as a symbol of authority, and was an indication of a burgh's relative prosperity. Historically, the term dates from the period before Acts of Union 1707, 1707, when the Kingdom of Scotland was an independent Sovereign state, state, but it has been applied loosely to later structures built in the traditional architectural style of crosses or structures fulfilling the function of marking a settlement's focal point. Historical documents often refer simply to "the cross" of whichever town or village is mentioned. Today, there are around 126 known examples of extant crosses in Scotland, though the number rises if later imitations are added. History The earliest documentary reference ...
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Castlegate, Aberdeen
Castlegate is a small area of Aberdeen, Scotland, located centrally at the east end of the city's main thoroughfare Union Street. Generally speaking, locals consider it to encompass the square at the end of Union Street where the Mercat Cross and Gallowgate are located. At the upper end of Castlegate stands The Salvation Army Citadel, an effective castellated mansion, on the site of the medieval Aberdeen Castle. Castlegate was named after the site of the castle gates until their destruction in 1308. Aberdeen's Mercat Cross was built in 1686 by John Montgomery, a native architect. This open-arched structure, 21 ft (6 m) in diameter and 18 ft (5 m) high, is a large hexagonal base from the centre of which rises a shaft with a Corinthian capital, on which is the royal unicorn. The base is highly decorated, including medallions illustrating Scottish monarchs from James I to James VII James II and VII (14 October 1633 – 16 September 1701) was King of England and Ir ...
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New Aberdeen
New Aberdeen is a neighbourhood in Aberdeen, Scotland. A Royal Burgh was established by the reign of David I in the middle of the twelfth century with Alexander II establishing a Guild of Merchants in New Aberdeen in 1222. It was a fishing and trading settlement where the river Denburn entered the Dee estuary. The burgh of New Aberdeen was merged with Old Aberdeen in 1891 to form the county of the city of Aberdeen. The area has some of the oldest streets in Aberdeen dating from the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries in New Aberdeen's historic marketplace the Castlegate where Aberdeen's Mercat cross is situated. Marischal College was founded in 1593 on the site of a disused medieval Franciscan friary by George Keith, 5th Earl Marischal of Scotland as a more Protestant alternative to Old Aberdeen's King's College. It was Scotland's second post-medieval "civic university", after the University of Edinburgh, created without a Papal bull and with a greater resemblance to th ...
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Unicorn
The unicorn is a legendary creature that has been described since Classical antiquity, antiquity as a beast with a single large, pointed, spiraling horn (anatomy), horn projecting from its forehead. In European literature and art, the unicorn has for the last thousand years or so been depicted as a white horse- or goat-like animal with a long straight horn with spiraling grooves, cloven hooves, and sometimes a goat's beard. In the Middle Ages and Renaissance, it was commonly described as an extremely wild forest, woodland creature, a symbol of purity and grace, which could be captured only by a virgin. In encyclopedias, its horn was described as having the power to render poisoned water potable and to heal sickness. In medieval and Renaissance times, the tusk of the narwhal was sometimes sold as a unicorn horn. A bovine type of unicorn is thought by some scholars to have been depicted in Indus seal, seals of the Bronze Age Indus Valley Civilisation, Indus Valley civilization ...
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James I Of Scotland
James I (late July 1394 – 21 February 1437) was List of Scottish monarchs, King of Scots from 1406 until his assassination in 1437. The youngest of three sons, he was born in Dunfermline Abbey to King Robert III of Scotland, Robert III and Annabella Drummond. His eldest brother David, Duke of Rothesay, died under suspicious circumstances while detained by his uncle, Robert, Duke of Albany. James's other brother, Robert, died young. Concerns for James's safety deepened in the winter of 1405–1406 prompting plans to send him to France. In February 1406, James took refuge in the castle of the Bass Rock in the Firth of Forth after his escort was attacked by supporters of Archibald, 4th Earl of Douglas. He remained there until mid-March when he boarded a vessel bound for France. On 22 March, an English vessel captured the ship and delivered James to Henry IV of England. The ailing Robert III died on 4 April and the 11-year-old James, now the uncrowned King of Scotland, would rema ...
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James VII Of Scotland
James II and VII (14 October 1633 – 16 September 1701) was King of England and Ireland as James II and King of Scotland as James VII from the death of his elder brother, Charles II, on 6 February 1685, until he was deposed in the 1688 Glorious Revolution. The last Catholic monarch of England, Scotland, and Ireland, his reign is now remembered primarily for conflicts over religion. However, it also involved struggles over the principles of absolutism and divine right of kings, with his deposition ending a century of political and civil strife by confirming the primacy of the English Parliament over the Crown. James was the second surviving son of Charles I of England and Henrietta Maria of France, and was created Duke of York at birth. He succeeded to the throne aged 51 with widespread support. The general public were reluctant to undermine the principle of hereditary succession after the trauma of the brief republican Commonwealth of England 25 years before, and believed t ...
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Jacobite Rising Of 1715
The Jacobite rising of 1715 ( ; or 'the Fifteen') was the attempt by James Francis Edward Stuart, James Edward Stuart (the Old Pretender) to regain the thrones of Kingdom of England, England, Kingdom of Ireland, Ireland and Kingdom of Scotland, Scotland for the exiled House of Stuart, Stuarts. At Braemar, Aberdeenshire, local landowner the John Erskine, Earl of Mar (1675–1732), Earl of Mar raised the Jacobite standard on 27 August. Aiming to capture Stirling Castle, he was checked by the much-outnumbered Hanoverians, commanded by the John Campbell, 2nd Duke of Argyll, Duke of Argyll, at Sheriffmuir on 13 November. There was no clear result, but the Earl appeared to believe, mistakenly, that he had won the battle, and left the field. After the Jacobite surrender at Battle of Preston (1715), Preston (14 November), the rebellion was over. Background The 1688 Glorious Revolution deposed James II and VII, who was replaced by his Protestant daughter Mary II of England, Mary II a ...
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James Francis Edward Stuart
James Francis Edward Stuart (10 June 16881 January 1766), nicknamed the Old Pretender by Whigs (British political party), Whigs or the King over the Water by Jacobitism, Jacobites, was the House of Stuart claimant to the thrones of Kingdom of England, England, Kingdom of Ireland, Ireland and Kingdom of Scotland, Scotland from 1701 until his death in 1766. The only son of James II of England and his second wife, Mary of Modena, he was Prince of Wales and heir until his Catholic father was deposed and exiled in the Glorious Revolution of 1688. His Protestant half-sister Mary II of England, Mary II and her husband William III of England, William III became co-monarchs. As a Catholic, he was subsequently excluded from the succession by the Act of Settlement 1701. James, who had been raised primarily in France and Italy, claimed the thrones of England, Ireland and Scotland when his father died in September 1701. As part of the War of the Spanish Succession, in 1708 Louis XI ...
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