St Mary's Chapel, Crosskirk

St Mary's Chapel at Crosskirk, on the north coast of Caithness west of Thurso, was probably built in the 1100s and is arguably the oldest and best-preserved standing church in the county. It is a plain rectangular building with a separate square-ended chancel, more like the Norse churches of Orkney and Scandinavia, such as St Mary's on Wyre, than other Highland churches, a sign of Caithness's ties to the Orkney earldom. Its west door and chancel arch have sides that taper towards the top, a feature of early Irish churches. It was later adapted into two burial enclosures within a walled graveyard whose earliest dated stone is of 1692. An Iron Age broch once stood between the church and the cliff edge, now largely lost to the sea, and St Mary's holy well is about 300 metres south. The walk of about half a mile from Crosskirk crosses a footbridge and grazed farmland, often wet and muddy, with views of the cliffs towards Orkney.