Old St Peter's Church is a ruined parish church in Thurso. It dates to at least 1125, and at one time was the principal church for the county, administered by the Bishops of Caithness.
Early in the 16th century, the vicarage of Thorso was held by Sir John Mathesoun chancellor of Caithness, on whose demission or otherwise Queen Mary in 1547 presented Master John Craig to the benefice. Master Walter Innes, who appears in record in 1554, was vicar of Thurso in 1560, and continued to hold the vicarage between 1561 and 1566. About 1567, John Rag was minister, and in 1574, Alexander Urquhart was minister of Olrik and Thurso, and John Davidsoun was reader at Thurso. In 1641, Alexander Monro, minister at Durnoch had from King Charles I, a grant of 800 marks Scots or of eight chalders victual in augmentation of his stipend from the rents of the bishopric in the parish of Thurso and elsewhere.
Old St Peter's, still standing, was disused since 1832 when a replacement church was built for the parish. That church, St Andrew's and St Peter's, is of Gothic style and was built to a design by William Burn.
References:Saint-Georges de Boscherville Abbey is a former Benedictine abbey. It was founded in about 1113 by Guillaume de Tancarville on the site of an earlier establishment of secular canons and settled by monks from the Abbey of Saint-Evroul. The abbey church made of Caumont stone was erected from 1113 to 1140. The Norman builders aimed to have very well-lit naves and they did this by means of tall, large windows, initially made possible by a wooden ceiling, which prevented uplift, although this was replaced by a Gothic vault in the 13th century. The chapter room was built after the abbey church and dates from the last quarter of the 12th century.
The arrival of the Maurist monks in 1659, after the disasters of the Wars of Religion, helped to get the abbey back on a firmer spiritual, architectural and economic footing. They erected a large monastic building one wing of which fitted tightly around the chapter house (which was otherwise left as it was).