Inner March Stone CR - Thistle Street.

Really difficult to find - took us two site visits and a trawl through the large scale OS to locate it. Just marked 'CR' for City Royalty, Crofts Royalty or City Regality. Or Crofts Regality.



The stone is set above head-height in a high wall at the back of a private car-park on Thistle Street, though it is visible from the street if you know exactly where to look. The wall was once part of the fortified wall of Aberdeen's West Prison, which sat at the north end of a then cul-de-sac Rose Street much shorter than we find that street today.

The CR stones mark the old 'Inner Marches' boundary. That is, the boundary of the city prior to Robert the Bruce's 'gift' to Aberdeen of the Stocket Forest in 1319. There aren't many of these CR-only stones left in place - that we know of! The council know of six, but acknowledge that there might be more, hidden in plain view, or in folk's gardens, or under a couple of inches of tarmac. We'll see...