Fettercairn

Fettercairn will have had some kind of market cross since 1504 when the status of a free burgh of barony was first granted. It is is said by some that the shaft of the current cross originally stood in the burgh of Kincardine which declined and eventually ceased when the judicial headquarters of the county moved to Stonehaven in 1600. There is no historical record of the cross being moved in this manner.

The royal license to hold markets in Fettercairn was renewed in 1670 and the shaft may indeed have been relocated at that time, at the same date the capitol was made and added to the cross. It bears that date 1670 on the north side, alternatively the shaft may pre-date the capitol and be the (Fettercairn) original from 1504 (it certainly appears older than the capitol). The capitol bears a sundial on the south side, the lion rampant from the royal arms of Scotland on the west and the coronetted initials of John, First Earl of Middleton, the local seigneur at the time on the east.

The shaft is octagonal and set on six sandstone steps. On the west of the shaft a deeply cut line marks the length of a Scot's ell (95.25cm or 37.5inches) the measurement used by traders in the market. There is also an iron hasp with two links still attached, presumed to be for the attachment of 'the jougs' an iron collar, persons found guilty of minor offences were restrained in this collar and exhibited at the cross as a punishment.

A triumphal arch of Rhenish Romanesque style; round arch between two high buttressed octagonal towers with short gabletted spirelets and wrought-iron finials. The top of the arch is finished with a crenellated parapet with a curvilinear gablet feature at the centre. It was the winner of a competition, assessed by Queen Victoria, to commemorate a visit by Victoria and Albert in 1861.