No stately church like the Cathedral of St. Magnus at Kirkwall, itself
the finest specimen of Norman architecture in Scotland, survives on
the mainland from Viking days; nor, so far as is known, was any such
edifice built there by any Norseman; but the original High Church of
Halkirk, and also the old church of St. Bar at Dornoch, which preceded
and is believed to have occupied a site immediately to the east of St.
Gilbert's later Cathedral, may have been used by the later jarls, and
a few miles south of Halkirk are the foundations of the Spittal of St.
Magnus,[12] part of which, and of St. Peter's Church at Thurso may be
Norse.
Though the towns of Wick and Thurso[13] are frequently mentioned
in the _Orkneyinga Saga_, and earls and jarls stayed at both, no
Sutherland village (if any save Dornoch existed) is named in it; but
the site of modern Golspie (Gol's-by) appears in ancient charters as
Platagall, "the Flat of the Stranger."[14]
If in his outward and visible man the Norseman has all but faded away
in Sutherland, he remains more in evidence in Caithness, in spite of
Celtic mothers and successive waves of Scottish immigration. The high
Norse skull, the tall frame with broad shoulders and narrow hips,[15]
the fair hair and skin, the sea-blue eyes and sound teeth are still
to be seen; and from time to time, amid greatly preponderating Celtic
types, we are startled by coming across some perfect living specimen
of the pure Viking type almost always on or near the coast.
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