Dornoch Cathedral

It has been in use since 1239.

Bishop Gilbert de Moravia chose Dornoch for the cathedral of the Diocese of Caithness in 1222, perhaps because his predecessor had been killed by angry farmers at Halkirk. He lived to see the first service here, died at Scrabster in 1245, and was made a saint. In 1570 a feud between the Murrays and the Mackays ended with the cathedral set on fire and its nave destroyed, and it was not fully restored until the 1830s. Today it is a Church of Scotland parish church that keeps its old title.

Inside, the Victorian plaster was stripped off in 1924 to show the stone again. Look for the carved pulpit and oak pews of 1911, and for the light through twenty-seven stained-glass windows, changing as the sun moves round.