[2] It is located beside a minor road west of Black Cairn Hill, around 1 mile (1.6 km) southwest of Newburgh, where only the pedestal remains of what once was supposedly a cross.

[4] Other crosses exist in Mortlach, Aberdeenshire; Kiels, Inverary; Strathlacplan, Argyll; and on Iona, Islay and Oronsay.

[2] The cross is supposed to mark the spot where the clan Macduff, in return for its chief's services against Macbeth, was granted rights of sanctuary and composition for murder done in hot blood.

The cross was originally dedicated to Saint Magider and smashed to pieces by a mob of fanatical followers of John Knox in 1559.

[6] MacDuff's cross was said to have been marked with a "metrical inscription, in a strange half-Latin jargon, the varying copies of which, still preserved, have given much occupation to antiquaries".