Old Parish Church Guide Book

The Former Churches
Though the present church was opened in 1887, the Parish Church of Peebles
has, through the centuries, occupied at least four previous buildings.
The first, dedicated to St. Mungo, was built 1500 years ago and had Kirk Lands
in excess of 100 acres. It was first written about in 1116 when it was listed in the
Inquest of the Elders of Cumbria. It was built within what is now the cemetery but
no trace remains.
The second church, on the same site as the first, was dedicated to St.Andrew by
Bishop Joceline of Glasgow in 1195 during the reign of William the Lion. It was
burned by the English in 1549 at the same time as the destruction of the Border
Abbeys. Only its tower now remains, along with a fragment of wall.
At the Reformation in 1560 the Parish Church moved to an existing church
building, known today as the Cross Kirk. The Church of the Holy Cross had been
founded by Alexander III in 1261. It is John of Fordun, writing in 1385, who tells
of its origin.
“On the ninth day of May 1261, in the thirteenth year of King Alexander, a stately
and venerable cross was found in Peebles…It is believed that it was hidden by
some of the faithful about the year of our Lord 296 while Maximian’s persecution
was raging throughout the land.”
After the cross was discovered, Peebles became a place of pilgrimage and the
King ordered the erection of a church on the spot. In 1473, James III founded
a monastery round it – the Monastery of the Order of Trinity Friars. It was this
church that became the Parish Church at the Reformation in 1560 and remained
so until 1783, when its ruinous condition made a move essential.
The Parish Church then moved to its present site on Castle Hill and was opened
in 1784 where it remained until its closure and demolition in 1885. The present
church on the same site was dedicated on 29th March, 1887.
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