Clow Chapel

ND25SW 3.00 2331 5245

ND25SW 3.01 ND 233 524 Farmstead

ND25SW 3.02 ND 2328 5232 Mill (possible)

(ND 2331 5245) Chapel (NR) (Remains of)

(ND 2331 5246) Grave Yard (NR) (Site of)

(ND 2323 5242) Red Well (NR) (Chalybeate)

OS 6" map, Caithness, 2nd ed., (1907)

These are the remains of St Mary's Chapel, standing in its graveyard with St Mary's Well on the opposite side of the Scouthal Burn.

Only fragments remain of the chapel, which appears to have consisted of a chancel, 14 by 10ft, and a nave, about 26 by 16ft. The walls, apparently unmortared, have been some 4ft thick.

In 1726, the chapel is described as having been 'ruinous before our time', and was used as a burial place only of strangers and unbaptised children. It seems to have been abandoned altogether about 1770. The Scouthal Burn is said to occasionally disclose stones and bones belonging to the graveyard. The area is known as 'The Clow', probably from 'Cladh' - a church-yard.

To the W of the chapel is an old enclosure with the foundations of several old rectangular buildings around it.

The Red Well is described by the ONB (1871) as a healing well of great popularity in the neighbourhood, and was believed to have been a holy well.

Name Book 1871; W Macfarlane 1906-8; D Beaton 1909; RCAHMS 1911, visited 1910; A MacKay 1914.

St Mary's Chapel is as described above. The interior wall face survives to a maximum height of 0.5m in the NE of the nave, and the exterior wall face is exposed only in the SE. There is no trace of the graveyard. There are no structural remains of the 'Red Well' and the only indication is a small marshy area, reddish in colour.

In the vicinity of the chapel are four ruined buildings, one of which contains a corn-drying kiln, and several enclosures (The Clow).

Survey of St Mary's Chapel revised at 1:2500.

Visited by OS (N K B) 22 October 1965.

(ND 2331 5245) Chapel (NR) (rems of)

(ND 2322 5246) Red Well (NR) (site of)

OS 1:10,000 map, (1976)

Extensive documentary search failed to locate any early reference to the site. Excavation in 1975-7 indicated that the nave was secondary and that the chancel is the only remnant of a unicameral structure whose proportions of roughly four to one suggest a later date than the Early Christian. A line of burning towards the S wall of the nave, which was thought to suggest the presence of an earlier timber church, proved to be only a slight scatter of charcoal; but an L-shaped arrangement of large stones, possibly indicating an earlier foundation, was located a little to the E of the entrance, which was confirmed towards the E end of the S side of the nave.

A slight ridge to the N of the nave suggested a churchyard enclosure, but a cut failed to locate this and the only feature of interest was a series of skulls neatly placed in small cists. Decapitation had taken place, a wide range was represented, and some skulls showed evidence of re-burial.

Excavation of the settlement nearby, which included a mill, showed it to be 18th and 19th century.

E Talbot 1977; Information from Ts of E Talbot's excavation report.

A further season of excavation has yielded more burials of skulls with the upper seven vertebrae, and fragments of a possible 13th century jug were found close to the foundations of the nave wall.

E Talbot 1980.

The chapel remains are generally as described. There is no sign of the graveyard. The area of the excavations has been backfilled. The Red Well, at ND 2323 5248, is across the Southal Burn and on the W side of the road. It is set into the face of a natural bank and shows an open side, 0.6m wide by 0.4m high. The slab roofing of the well is partly collapsed.

Surveyed at 1:10,000.

Visited by OS (J M) 11 March 1982

Longhouse farm (ND 2330 5240), comprising;

A: Chapel, St Mary's. Dimensions: 10.5 x 7m. Rectangular structure with porch 5 x 5m on the NE wall. Orientation NE-SW.

B-D: See ND25SW 3.01

E: See ND25SW 3.02

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

An unroofed building is shown on both the first edition 6-inch map (Caithness 1877, sheet xiii) and the current edition of the OS 1:10,000 map (1994).

Information from RCAHMS (FO) 27 March 1996.