Merkland Cross, an old monument in Kirkpatrick-Fleming parish, SE Dumfriesshire, 2¹/8 miles WNW of Kirkpatrick village. It comprises a base or socket 2½ feet high, and a slightly tapering octagonal pillar 9 feet high, and is supposed to commemorate a Master of Maxwell, Warden of the Marches, who, after a victorious skirmish with the Duke of Albany and the Earl of Douglas, was here assassinated in 1484.—Ord. Sur., sh. 10, 1864.

(F.H. Groome, Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland (1882-4); © 2004 Gazetteer for Scotland)