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Old St Peter's Kirk in Thurso is the town's only catagory "A" listed structure and one of Thurso's most ancient buildings. The site has been a place of Christian worship (in various forms) since around 600AD and the Forss Vault on the east wing dates from that period. The rest of the building is largely medieval from around 1632 onwards with modifications until the last Sunday of 1832 when it closed. It was replaced with St Peter's Church on Prince's Street which opened on the first Sunday in 1833. The latter church is a fine building nearing 200 years of service (more on a new page eventually). Much has changed around and about St Peter's Kirk and here we touch on some of it's less well known points. This is only the tip of the ice-berg by the way!
Above, St Peter's as it can be seen today. The wall around the cemetary is only a wall. The cemetary is much bigger. As the town grew around the Kirk buildings encroached upon the burial grounds until it became as it is today.
Looking in the gate of the kirkyard we see the main porch entrance. This was the last stone-built addition to the kirk around the early 1700s. The right hand side is an earlier structure with modifications to allow for the porch. The left side is the 'new-build' made from reconstituted stone. The stone features two sets of letters. One set higher up on the door frame is Victorian graffiti relating to two people. Lower down is something a bit older. More on that below. The source of the stone is unknown but it is not likely to be any re-used material from the kirk itself as it doesn't match any other stone cut in the building. If you look carefully at the picture you can make out the 45 degree pitch of the former porch roof the peak of which is level with the top of the upper door. The mark is left as a result of the area having been covered from the elements for the time that the roof existed. The same effect can be seen over the north porch door on the east side of the north wing.
Close-up of the porch. The steps down into the kirk are constructed from reconstituted parts of old grave stones. On each side can be see molded stonework from old tombs and most of the steps are flat grave slabs turned over. The rectangular stone above the door. apparently had the date '1637' on it. The door is a medieval round arch on the inside, the outside is modified using original stone. Originally you would have stepped up into the kirk, more on that below. Can you see the stone in the right side of the porch that has engraved medieval letters?
Above left: A close-up of the porch left side. There are five sources of stone in this section most of which matches material from the Wolfburn Palace at Burnside, Thurso. The destinctly orange stone in the middle has no link to either the kirk or palace but still has some original harling which covered the kirk in it's later years. To the left is a now lost section of outbuilding at Wolfburn Palace to show the matching stone type. Wolfburn had been a favourite seat of the Caithness Bishops but had been in disuse since 1590. It was robbed out several times to provide material for developement at St Peter's Kirk. Above is the right side of the porch and a close up of the carved stone. What was originally on the stone is lost with only the vague shape of the former upon it.
The Forss Vault is the oldest part of the kirk with foundations dating from around 600AD pre-dating Viking arrivals by 200 years and indicating the existance of a township long before the name of Thurso. The vault contains a number of interesting features all of which are very important. Above left are medieval paintings which were very clear when first revealed in 1985/6 but have sadly been very badly damaged due to a botched preservation effort. None the less above is an enhancement of what is there. Also on the walls close scrutiny will find several other elements including a bishop and chamberlain. There happens to be the grave of Chamberlain John Manson in the Forss vault! Close examination also revealed that there are TWO layers of plaster on the walls so there could be more hidden from the eye.
In the photo to the right is an interesting stone. It's not a grave stone or memorial but it does have mort symbols, the Sinclair clan crest (with additional motif on it's right), initials EWS (not the railway company) and Latin text. Aside from the initials no-one is named on the stone. The stone is a link with the south aisle built at the start of the 1600s when the Sinclairs came north from France (this is Knights Templer stuff here) and did some things in Caithness and Orkney. No-one quite knows what but the south ailse is 3ft more easterly than the north aisle and there is no reason for it- or is there? The south aisle is known as the Sinclair aisle and the stone in the Forss vault dates from the same era. One theory is that the relics of St Gilbert of Moray were briefly interred here after the sacking of Dornoch Cathedral but an overview of saints tombs in other churches suggests this is not a good enough reason to shift a whole wing. ???
Edging out of the darkness in photo enhancement is the "1636" stone which is entriging. It commemorates something but it's location isn't giving any answers. This stone was very finely worked but has decayed badly. An assessment of the lines on the stone suggest two sets of two intials each side of the date- the right side gives clearer evidence of this.
To the right this obscure bit of wall is a small fragment of painted plaster, again medieval in date. In the patch on it's top left edge is an area of red pigment. The pigment is a paint based on egg white and the red comes from bulls' blood.
Above, how it would look if it were still complete. Below left, the north wing known as the Town Aisle and the West Aisle. Below right, the east side of the Town Aisle and the outside of the Forss Vault showing how it would look if the ground were lowered to an earlier level. Look carefully above the door to see the pitch of the roof of the wooden porch which once stood there.
With the wonders of digital technology we took away the wall and dropped the ground level to match 1687.
A little bit of cgi later and we have roof below.
A fair bit of cgi later and a complete kirk as it looked at it's finest.
NEW DISCOVERY!... well actually NO!
It was recently announced in the local press that a local historian made a new discovery at Old St Peter's Kirk. In a vague article which did not say exactly anything other than some initials were found, their location was not revealed. The kirkyard is locked for the winter so we haven't been able to review the building. However this page was inspired/provoked by the 'discovery'. We first viewed the letters over 15 years ago when two senior ladies were going around cemetaries to write down every decernable inscription on graves and such like. Together we spent about 20 minutes looking at the left doorpost discussing two clearly different sets of letters. The uppermost cut into a harder sandstone were that of Victorian graffiti by a young couple. Lower down in softer stone and were more very worn letters too faint to make out in the sunlight conditions of the day. We came away with no note of the text so we kinda forgot what had been readable but did not forget that it was there. So when we read the article the doorpost of the porch came to mind. The doorframe is made from 5 different sources of sandstone, none of which have come from any other part of the building. We are going to give the stonework a thorough examination in the near future but meantime save to say the text on the stones have no major signifigance in the building or local history. The steps into the porch might yield more interesting text if dismantled by archeologists but again not directly linked to the kirks' history. The most important features of the kirk likely to hold some secrets are the Sinclair Stone in the Forss Vault, the "1636" stone and the medieval paintings in the Forss Vault and Sinclair aisle and anything we haven't yet seen in the crypt (because the entrance is blocked up).
Cinema For Thurso Group has a recording project in the pipeline for part of the building and when it is complete a new page will be added.
