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Wick, High Street, Old St Fergus Church And Graveyard

Burial Ground (Medieval), Holy Well (Medieval), Parish Church (17th Century)

Site Name Wick, High Street, Old St Fergus Church And Graveyard

Classification Burial Ground (Medieval), Holy Well (Medieval), Parish Church (17th Century)

Alternative Name(s) St Fergus Lane; Sinclair Burial Aisle; St Fergus Church And Well, Wic 171-2 And 175

Canmore ID 9136

Site Number ND35SE 1

NGR ND 36188 51137

NGR Description Centred on ND 36188 51137

Datum OSGB36 - NGR

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/9136

Ordnance Survey licence number AC0000807262. All rights reserved.
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Administrative Areas

  • Council Highland
  • Parish Wick
  • Former Region Highland
  • Former District Caithness
  • Former County Caithness

Archaeology Notes

(ND 3618 5113) St Fergus' Church (NR) (site of)

(ND 3618 5109) St Fergus's Well (NR) (site of)

OS 6" map, (1968)

The remains of the former parish church and the site of its holy well, both dedicated to St Fergus (fl 721 AD). An early cross-marked stone, dug up near the church is in Thurso Museum (Craven 1908).

The church is on record between 1223 and 1245 (OPS 1855), and in 1726 it was stated that 'there is at the E end of it on the N side under a little pend, a hewn stone with a man at full length on it. . . The steeple on the W end of it seems to be a very ancient work. . . On the N side of the church stands the Sinclairs' Isle the ancient buryal place of the Earles of Caithnesse, where many of them be interred in a vault. To the E of that on the same side of the church stands the Dunbars' Isle, the burying place of the family of Hemprigs and in it a handsome monument in hewn stone' (Macfarlane 1906-8). In 1794 the church is described at being 'very old, long, narrow and ill-constructed, perhaps the worse in Caithness' (OSA 1794).

At the end of the 18th century a new church was built but was found to be unsafe and was replaced by the present church (at ND 3615 5116) in 1830. By 1841, the Sinclair Aisle and the Dunbar Tomb were all that remained of the old church.

The sculptured figure which lay in the church is that of a recumbent ecclesiastic and dates from the late 15th or early 16th century. It was locally believed to represent St Fergus, and was housed in the town jail, then served at an upright statue before being placed by 1910 in the Sinclair Aisle which is described as 'an uninteresting fragment of the old church of St Fergus, with unseemly modern crenellations along the wall-heads. . . said to have been built by George, 4th Earl of Caithness, who died in 1583' (RCAHMS 1911).

The holy well was a well of spring water immediately under the graveyard (ONB 1872). [Previously recorded as ND35SE 2]

In 1840 the parish minister found a font, being used as a trough and sharpening stone, in the glebe farmyard (probably ND 3603 5129 since the manse stood in the glebe which was about 9 acres in extent [NSA 1845]). It passed into the possession of the Free Church minister, in the garden of whose manse (ND 3604 5145) (OS 6" map, Caithness, 1st ed., 1873) it was preserved in 1910.

It is octagonal, each face bearing a pointed shield and each angle a vertical moulding. The edges are broken (RCAHMS 1911).

Statistical Account (OSA) 1794; New Statistical Account (NSA) 1845; Orig Paroch Scot 1855; Ordnance Survey Name Book (ONB) 1872; W Macfarlane 1906-8; J B Craven 1908; F E Eeles 1910; RCAHMS 1911, visited 1910; W J Watson 1926.

The cross-slab, in Thurso Museum, is of sandstone and measures 0.8 by 0.6m by 0.07m thick.

The monumental effigy and the font are in Wick Museum.

The Sinclair Aisle (ND 3619 5114), bearing the inscription 'repaired and ornamented in 1835', may contain some original window and door detail from an earlier building, but otherwise both it and the Dunbar Tomb (ND 3620 5113) appear modern.

Visited by OS (W D J) 20 April 1962.

Font ND 3618 5050, Pultneytown. Dimensions: 5.70 x 2.95cm high. Located in the Manse garden (ND35SE 58) in 1840, apparently from St Fergus' Chapel (WIC 172).

Decorated with a shield. WIC 175.

C E Batey, Caithness Coastal Survey, 1981.

The locations of the artifacts from the site are as described by the previous field investigator. The Sinclair Aisle is a roofless derelict structure 11.6m N-S by 6.8m. The wall, excepting the later crenellations and alterations to windows, seems a homogenous feature and stands up to 2.2m high, topped by the crenellations. Inside at the N end the wall is plastered and a concrete plinth 3.0m wide and 0.4m high is constructed. Immediately to the E is the Dunbar Tomb, an imposing structure 6.8m N-S by 6.4m and 3.0m high. Roofless, it is stone-built and inside, a modern memorial, now partly removed, has been erected on the walls.

The Sinclair Aisle and the Dunbar Tomb are all that remain of the original parish chruch.

No trace of St Fergus' Well was found.

Revised at 1:2500.

Visited by OS (J B) 18 August 1982

Site Management (11 July 2014)

Rubble walls approximately 7? high with dressed stone cope. Sinclair aisle; remains of old St Fergus Church (circa 1680) with modern crenellation, the burial ground of the Sinclair of Ulster. Recumbent effigy; memorial slabs.

Corner site with St Fergus Lane. Interesting graves 17th, 18th and 19th centuries. (Historic Scotland)

Activities

Project (1980 - 1982)

References

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