Achardale

NE15NW 11 1162 5653.

(ND 1162 5653) Chapel (NR) (remains of)

OS 6" map, Caithness, 1st ed., (1877)

The remains of an ancient chapel that stood in the centre of an ancient burial ground. From local tradition it seems to have been a Roman Catholic chapel. The grave yard has not been used as such since about 1810.

Name Book 1872.

(ND 1162 5653) Chapel (NR) (site of)

OS 6" map, (1970)

At ND 1162 5653, immediately adjacent to the published chapel site, is a small rectangular footing, believed by the farmer at Achardale to be the remains of the chapel, and verified as such by field examination.

The footing is turf-covered and measures 5.7m E-W by 3.5m within a turf-covered wall spread from 1.5 to 2.0m and 0.4m high internally. At the W end a depressioin in the wall is possibly the entrance. A slight scarp, 14.0m to the N of the chapel, is possibly the limit of the burial ground; elsewhere its margin cannot be ascertained. No grave markers are visible. The site is placed on a slight terrace immediately above the flood plain of the River Thurso; no other structures occur in the immediate vicinity.

Revised at 1:2500.

Visited by OS (J B) 22 February 1982

Chapel. Dimensions: 5.7 x 3.5m. Turf-covered remains of an ancient chapel defined by walls 0.4m high, with a possible entrance on the W side. A slight scarp 14m N of the structure may indicate the limit of an associated burial ground. A flat stone, possibly a grave marker, lies in this area.

R J Mercer, NMRS mS/828/19, 1995