Barochan Cross

PricingFreeFree for all visitors

Free entry for everyone

Entry

Free for everyone

Pricing details

Free for everyone; the cross is inside Paisley Abbey, a Church of Scotland parish church, which asks no entry charge (donations welcome). The abbey's own guided tours cost £5. No membership card is needed.

ParkingNo car park

Arrive on foot, by bike or by public transport.

Parking details

Paisley Abbey: 'There is no on site car parking at the Abbey', with a link to Renfrewshire Council's page of Paisley car parks and tariffs. Bridge Street car park is about 170 m south and Orchard Street about 270 m. The council's tariff page could not be read on 21 October 2026.

Driving pin: Historic Scotland's own pin at the abbey on Abbey Close. Paisley Gilmour Street station is a five-minute walk, with trains from Glasgow in about ten minutes.

About

Inside Paisley Abbey stands the Barochan Cross, carved between AD 900 and 1100. It is one of only three complete crosses surviving from the early medieval kingdom of Strathclyde, with the Sun Cross at Govan and the Netherton Cross in Hamilton. Nearly 2 m high, it is carved on all four sides, mostly with interlace and key pattern. On the front a mounted warrior with a spear rides above a man with a drinking horn and three others, one with an axe, and two animals; on the back two rows of figures include men in profile blowing trumpets and carrying spears. It probably stood beside Barochan Mill near Houston, on a track to Dumbarton Rock, the old centre of Strathclyde, and was moved to a nearby knoll in the 1800s and into the abbey in 1981. Paisley Abbey, founded in 1163, is a working parish church, open Monday to Saturday, with guided tours at a charge on some afternoons. The abbey has no parking.

Check today’s timesSee all times

Barochan Cross10:00 – 16:00Paisley Abbey; last admission 15:30

Opening times may change at short notice.

The cross is inside Paisley Abbey. The abbey says it is normally open Monday to Saturday 10am to 4pm, last admission 3.30pm, with its shop and cafe; on Friday 23 and Saturday 24 October 2026 it closes at 3pm (last admission 2.30pm) for the Paisley Halloween Festival. Historic Scotland's page gives older hours, Tuesday to Saturday 10.30am to 2.30pm year round, and asks visitors to check the abbey's website for closures.

Paisley Abbey is a working Church of Scotland parish church with a Sunday morning service at 11am. Its guided tours run on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday at 2pm (£5, tickets from the abbey shop). The cross, nearly 2 m high, stands on a plinth inside the church with an information panel.

Photo: The south wall of Paisley Abbey's nave and its square central tower, where the Barochan Cross is kept, under a blue sky. Tom Parnell, CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Paisley_Abbey_-_view_from_SW.jpg. Licence: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0. Resized and cropped for display; derivatives retain the source licence.