The Chapel of St. Mary and St. Nathalan is a ruined chapel overlooking the North Sea immediately north of Stonehaven. The founding of this Christian place of worship is associated with St. Nathalan, who lived circa 650 AD. It was dedicated in 1276 by William Wishart, Bishop of St Andrews, and probably stands on the same site as St Nathalan’s early church. The chapel was never a parish church but was included within the parish of Fetteresso. Several Scottish monarchs, in particular James IV, frequently worshipped here and gave generous donations to the chapel.
The chapel is at the point where the Highland Boundary Fault meets the sea and so is on the dividing line between the highlands and lowlands of Scotland. The Chapel of St. Mary and St. Nathalan is one of the oldest surviving structures in Kincardineshire.
References:The Church of St Donatus name refers to Donatus of Zadar, who began construction on this church in the 9th century and ended it on the northeastern part of the Roman forum. It is the largest Pre-Romanesque building in Croatia.
The beginning of the building of the church was placed to the second half of the 8th century, and it is supposed to have been completed in the 9th century. The Zadar bishop and diplomat Donat (8th and 9th centuries) is credited with the building of the church. He led the representations of the Dalmatian cities to Constantinople and Charles the Great, which is why this church bears slight resemblance to Charlemagne's court chapels, especially the one in Aachen, and also to the Basilica of San Vitale in Ravenna. It belongs to the Pre-Romanesque architectural period.
The circular church, formerly domed, is 27 m high and is characterised by simplicity and technical primitivism.