Note (return) — Chapter XI
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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.