Ormiston Market Cross

In the middle of Main Street in Ormiston, a planned village 2 miles south of Tranent, stands one of the few medieval market crosses to survive in Scotland, probably carved about 1450. Ormiston first appears in records in the mid-1400s, a date that fits the style of the cross, and its right to hold a market presumably came from the burgesses of Haddington. Its square shaft is cut from a single stone, and a shield on the west face may once have been painted with the landowner's arms. It rises from an octagonal base, although the three steps beneath are not original. The village around it was laid out by John Cockburn of Ormiston about 1735 as a model village, and the cross may have been re-erected at that time as the centrepiece of its broad main street. A rare survival from before the Reformation, it is free to see at any time, with parking on Main Street.