Gordonmac Dot Com

Last night I went for a wander in the dark with the camera, it was very frosty making for a lovely starry evening – you just had to watch your feet! Walking along the Riverside Park path I came to the boating shed and noticed the Old Parish Church spire peeking up above the surrounding trees, set against a beautiful starry sky.

I had seen this before on another clear night, and at the time had made a mental note to come back and take a photo at some point, but never did. Here’s the photo:

Wick Old Parish Church is quite a remarkable sight in the centre of the town, with its ancient looking grave yard and stark shape it’s really hard to miss.

The church opened its doors on June 1830, but it is actually the third church to have been built on the site where it stands, the first one being the Kirk of St Fergus some time around 1567. The only part of the Kirk of St Fergus to survive until the present day is a small building known in Wick as The Sinclair Aisle, but, technically, it is the Saint Fergus Chapel if you are to refer to a map.

The second church to stand on the site is described by a minister of the time:

The church stands at the west end of the town of Wick, the head burgh of the shire. It is called St Fergus Church and there is at the east end of it on the north side under a little pend, a hewn stone with a man at full length on it which is said to be his effigy engraven on stone. The steeple on the west end seems to be a very ancient work; but there are neither letters nor figures to know its antiquity. On the north side of the church stands the Sinclair’s Aisle, the ancient burial place of the Earls of Caithness where many of them lie interred in a vault. To the east of that on the same side of the church stands the Dunbar’s aisle, the burial places of the family of Hempriggs and in it a handsome monument in hewn stone.

Architecturally, the church is quite impressive, apparently boasting the widest unsupported roof of any church in Scotland, the beams of which were built with imported Scandinavian red pine and measure 60ft in length. The stone that went into its construction came from the North Head and Louisburgh quarries.

In the present day the church looks much different. The grave yard is surrounded by mature trees, and the gravestones are considerably more weathered! The Old parish Church cemetery is definitely worth a wander if you have 20 minutes to spare. The oldest gravestone dates back to 1639 and the Sinclair vault dates back to 1576 – making it, for me, one of the most interesting places in the town.

Go and have a look, there are no ghosts there :)