THE unicorn at the top of Dunfermline's Market Cross has been smashed after vandals targeted the statue.
Police are investigating the incident and it is feared the damage is beyond repair.
A police spokesperson said: "Around 9.30pm on Monday, November 7, 2022, police received a report a statue in High Street, Dunfermline, had been vandalised.
"Enquiries are ongoing to locate those responsible. If anyone has any information, please contact Police Scotland."
Fife Council archaeologist Douglas Speirs said they were made aware of the damage on Monday night.
"It was discovered that the top of the market cross had been dislodged and had fallen to the ground, shattering on impact," he explained.
"The shattered pieces were recovered and are being assessed to establish whether or not anything is repairable but, unfortunately, initial assessments suggest that the damage is beyond repair."
Speirs said there had been a market cross on Dunfermline High Street since the later-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.
"It’s the spot from which every momentous event in the town’s, and the country’s, history, has been announced. The site from which innumerable royal proclamations have been announced; from where deals have been done and rebels have been denounced since the early 12th century.
"Indeed, it’s central place in the heart of the burgesses of Dunfermline has ensured that it’s always been looked after.
"Historically, the town’s various incorporated trades – its bakers, weavers, dyers, cobblers etc – along with its merchant guild (founded in 1433) took it in turns to maintain the cross and to annually re-paint its royal heraldry, a tradition continued right up to 1868 when the present cross was raised and resourced by public subscription in 1868."
