Monument record MHG6781 - Kirkton of Cromdale

NJ02NE 6 067 285.

'Kirkton of Cromdale',near the present village of Cromdale (NJ 075 285) was made into 'one free burgh and baronie' by James VI. It was a place of some importance having a school, a court-house, a jail, a fair and hanging-hill, 'Tom-na-croiche'; but with the exception of some traces of a prison-cell, this village has entirely disappeared.
(Cromdale Church (NJ 0667 2896) bears a stone dated 1602, which is thought to have come from an earlier church on the same site. Kirkton of Cromdale, presumably, therefore, lay in its vicinity)
J B Ritchie 1932.

The farm of Mains of Cromdale stands partly on the site of Kirkton of Cromdale. All that survives of the village is part of the prison incorporated in a shed at NJ 0675 2849, and traces of two or three rectangular foundations on either side of the old road immediately to the SW of the farm buildings.
According to Mr Grant (Rev J Grant, Cromdale Manse) the last resident died in 1802, but the school continued in use until 1874 when it was replaced by the present school at NJ 0678 2852 itself gutted by fire in 1947 and now disused. Mr Grant has in his possession a lock reputed to be from the prison door. The location of Tom-na-croiche is not known. Visited by OS (A A) 15 April 1971.