caithness-1911/05_030

Transcription

xxviii -- HISTORICAL MONUMENTS (SCOTLAND) COMMISSION.

originally have been of Norse construction. The oldest church,
St Peter's, or St Mary's, at Lybster in Reay, may be of as early a
date as the 12th century.
A few relics of the Viking period have been found in the county.
On the summit of the mound covering a broch near Castletown was
found in 1786, beneath a flat stone, a cist containing an unburnt
burial, accompanied by two oval, bowl-shaped brooches of the type
worn by women during the pagan period of the Norse invasions.
Along with them were a bracelet of coarse jet and a bone pin 4" in
length, all of which are now preserved in the National Museum of
Antiquities in Edinburgh. In 1837 two similar brooches were found
in a full length stone cist in a gravel hillock on the farm of Wester-
seat, near Wick. Beside the Kirk o' Tang were discovered seven
penannular bracelets of silver, and near the ruined church of St Peter's
in Thurso, on the top of a cist containing an unburnt burial, a
portion of grave cross (No. 446), inscribed in runic characters, which
is preserved in the Thurso Museum.
With the exception of the line of the Norse earls, the earldom
of Caithness, from which was now disjoined the County of Sutherland,
passed to Malise, Earl of Strathern, and, after being held by various
families, was finally settled, in 1455, on William Sinclair of Rosslyn,
Lord High Chancellor of Scotland.
Being so remote from the centre of the kingdom, the county has
not been associated in any particular degree with the stirring events
of Scottish history. The history of the Sinclair earls and their almost
incessant feuds with the neighbouring earls of Sutherland; the
quarrels of the leading families - Sinclairs and Sutherlands, Keiths,
Oliphants, and Gunns, furnish the chief materials of its story. This
may be read in Calder's History of Caithness, the main authority for
the greater part of which is Sir Robert Gordon's Earldom of Suther-
land; while in a recent compilation, The County of Caithness, the
various aspects of the county's development are treated of at length.

PART II.

ECCLESIASTICAL STRUCTURES.

The early ecclesiastical structures in Caithness, though originally
numerous, are now for the most part reduced to mere foundations.
The styles of Gothic architecture do not seem to have penetrated
into this remote county, though features of late date, such as the
pointed windows in St Peter's, Thurso, occur in one or two instances,
and the greater number of the structures have been small chapels,
rudely built of the native slate, without mortar, and unrelieved by
architectural ornament or enrichment.
The mere sites of chapels and churches number over thirty, and
to these are to be added to complete the total the considerable ruins
of St Mary's at Lybster in Reay parish, St Thomas' at Skinnet,
St Magnus' at Spittal, St Peter's at Thurso, and St Trothan's at
Olrig, as well as the parish churches of Dunnet and Canisbay, both
still in use.
The most remarkable church, and that of earliest date, is St
Mary's at Lybster (No. 388). In its main features, although