TWO men suspected to have damaged an historic Scottish city monument are being urged to come forward before they’re caught.
Police Scotland issued detailed descriptions of the two after the Mercat Cross in Dunfermline was damaged overnight from Saturday, 12 April, to Sunday, 13 April, 2025.
The statue was snapped in half, with debris left scattered across the High Street at the junction of Guildhall Street, the Dunfermline Press reported at the time.
There has been a Mercat Cross in Dunfermline since at least 1396, when the Burgh received its charter, according to the historic environment record Canmore.
The one which was damaged earlier in April had been raised and resourced by public subscription in 1868, it is understood.
Police said they had been “following a positive line of enquiry” and were now appealing directly to the two males believed to be involved in the incident to come forward.
He was wearing a thin black jacket with small writing on right shoulder, a black t-shirt with white writing and a yellow logo, black jogging bottoms, grey Nike Air Max shoes. Inspector Conrad Musgrave, from Dunfermline Police Station, said: “The statue is very old and important to the people of Dunfermline and the surrounding area. “Extensive enquiries have been carried out, including full CCTV reviews from the local area and nearby premises. “We are now asking the males responsible to please come forward.” Anyone with any information is asked to contact police on 101, quoting incident 1093 of Sunday, 13 April, 2025.
It's not the first time the monument has been damaged. The unicorn at the top was smashed by vandals in November 2022.
Fife Council archaeologist Douglas Speirs said at the time that there had been a market cross on Dunfermline High Street since the 1120s.
"It's been subject to replacement and repair many times over the centuries – 1396, 1620, 1695, 1752," he explained. "The cross we see today is a replacement erected by public subscription in 1868, with the horn of the unicorn replaced by the council only last year.
"For almost 1000 years, the heart of Dunfermline’s marketplace has been watched over by its market cross. The town’s oldest feature of municipal architecture, it has always been a monument of civic pride.”
Dunfermline officially became a city in May 2022 as part of the late Queen Elizabeth’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations.
