DORNOCH CATHEDRAL
DORNOCH, SCOTLAND CHURCH OF SCOTLAND
WILLIE MACKAY, ANDY KIRBY
&
PAUL SCOTT
[Photo Credit: Flickr Dave Conner]
I contacted Dornoch Cathedral with the offer of constructing a Cathedral website in exchange for some photos, and received a very enthusiastic response. It turns out that this year (2024) is the 800th anniversary of the Cathedral! Since then there has been a very productive series of exchanges which have resulted in this website. Almost all the photos used here have been provided by Willie Mackay [WM] and Andy Kirby [AK]. I am grateful to Willie and Andy for their enthusiastic participation. A few public domain photos have also been used, and these are acknowledged in the text. A couple of photos from Google Street View are labelled GSV. Further details are given in the Conclusion.
A satellite view, plan and brief history of this Cathedral are given below. For future reference we include here a set of links which will allow direct navigation (by a tap / click) to the various named parts of the Cathedral.
This is a delightful Cathedral with a very long history!
SATELLITE VIEW
The satellite view shows that Dornoch Cathedral has a simple cruciform shape with a large square tower and spire at the crossing, with a small cylindrical turret at the top right corner of the tower. The Cathedral has streets close by on three sides, and a large green cemetery area to the east.
On this site we shall be using liturgical directions, on which East (with a capital letter) denotes the orientation of the vestry. The satellite view shows that the main axis of Dornoch Cathedral is almost exactly geographically east - west, with the sanctuary at the eastern end, so our convention causes no confusion here.
In our exploration of the Cathedral we shall begin near the Western end, and walk around the Cathedral in a clockwise direction before entering through the Western door.
PLAN
The Cathedral plan reveals no new surprises, although we do see that there is an entrance lobby to each of the transepts.
The red letters denote the naming of different sections within the text: X Exterior, W Nave; N North Transept; E Chancel; S South Transept; C Crossing; and T Tower (Entry).
Our exploration of the interior of the Cathedral will take us from the nave to the crossing with font, lectern and pulpit, the South transept, the North transept with organ, the tower (with access just East of the pulpit), and finally the chancel / sanctuary.
HISTORY
Years Built: 1224, 1835 – 37
Address: Dornoch IV25 3SH, United Kingdom
Dornoch Cathedral is a Church of Scotland parish church serving the small Sutherland town of Dornoch, in the Scottish Highlands. As a congregation of the Church of Scotland, which is Presbyterian, the church is not the seat of a bishop but retains the name due to being, historically, the seat of the Bishop of Caithness. The cathedral’s churchyard is adjoined by Dornoch Castle, the somewhat reconstructed remains of the medieval palace of the Bishops of Caithness. It was formerly a Catholic Cathedral.
History
The cathedral was dedicated to its founder, St. Gilbert and was built in 1224, in the reign of King Alexander II (1214–49) and the episcopate of Gilbert de Moravia (died 1245) (later Saint Gilbert of Dornoch) as the cathedral church of the diocese of Caithness (moved to Dornoch from Halkirk). William de Moravia (later Sutherland), 1st Earl of Sutherland, was buried in the cathedral in 1248.
In 1570, the cathedral was burnt down by the Mackays of Strathnaver during local feuding. Full renovations were not carried out until 1835–37. Initially architect William Burn was involved, funded by Elizabeth the Countess of Sutherland. However, the Duchess sacked him and appointed Alexander Couper, her Superintendant of Works wo work with architect William Leslie. The cost was £15,000 (equivalent to £1,720,000 in 2023). Among the renovations carried out, the ruined but still largely intact aisled medieval nave was demolished and a new narrow nave without pillars built on its site. In the 17th century, Dornoch ceased to be the seat of the Bishops of Caithness due to the abolition of the episcopate in the Church of Scotland, but the name has remained due to this historical association.
On 30 September 1866, the Duke and Duchess of Sutherland were present to welcome the Prince and Princess of Wales, and the Duke of Edinburgh, who attended the morning service.
The interior was reordered between 1924 and 1926 by Rev. Charles Donald Bentinck, with the removal of Victorian plasterwork to reveal the stonework (although the medieval church would have been plastered throughout). The site of the medieval high altar was raised and converted into a burial area for the Sutherland family, who introduced large marble memorials.
The previous minister was the Very Rev Dr James Simpson, who was Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in 1994. As of May 2018, the minister (since 1998) was the Rev Susan Brown. On 9 October 2017, it was announced that she had been nominated as the next Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland. She took up the position in May 2018 and served for a year.
