Monument record MHG980 - St Trostan's Chapel

St Trostan's Chapel (NR) (Supposed Site of)
OS 6"map, Caithness, 2nd ed., (1907)

(ND 0672 6410) Priest Hillock (NR), (ND 0663 6410) Baptismal Font (NR) OS 6"map, Caithness, 1st ed., (1876)

'Caithness Monumental Inscriptions', pre 1855
Monumental inscription survey completed by A.S.Cowper & I.Ross.
The survey may not include inscription information after 1855 and each inscription transcribed does not give the full details that appear on the stones, abbreviations used. Some ommissions and inacuracies. Published 1992.
J Aitken : 20/12/02
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At Westfield there are the ruins of an old chapel of Trostan or Drostan, evidently a Celtic foundation, and the burial ground, which is still in use. The baptismal font is reputed never to run dry.
D Beaton 1909.

St Trostan's Chapel is supposed to have stood in the graveyard - some say on the Priest Hillock.
Name Book 1872.

St Trostan's was a pre-Reformation chapel.
A Auld 1868.

In graveyard centred at ND 066 641 no trace of St Trostan's Chapel could be found, and Priest Hillock at ND 0672 6412 appears to be a circular feature probably pre-dating chapel. At ND 0662 6410, set in face of S wall of the graveyard, is a baptismal font, suggesting that chapel was in or near the graveyard rather than on Priest Hillock. Priest Hillock measures 20m from N to S by 25m transversely and 2m high; it is constructed of stone with an almost circular cell containing traces of walling in the top, measuring 6m in diameter. Priest Hillock surveyed at 1:2500.
Visited by OS (R D) 21 October 1964.

(ND 0661 6412) St Drostan's Chapel (NR) (site of), (ND 0672 6412) Priest Hillock (NR) OS 1:10,000 map, (1975)

Most likely site for St Trostan's Chapel (name verified by farmer at Westfield) is in graveyard published on OS map, where font still remains. The graveyard is still in occasional use; the earliest decipherable stone is dated 1741.
Priest Hillock (name verified) does not resemble remains of a chapel. It is an amorphous turf-covered mound about 18m E-W by 16m and 1.8m high. It is mutilated by (1) plough-lines at base, (2) the dumping of soil from nearby drain, and (3) by a deep cutting into N segment revealing a content of slabs, indicating that mound is wholly or in part artificial, but its date and purpose are uncertain. Superimposed upon summit is a perfectly circular mound of stones 5.9m in diameter and 0.5m average height, bounded by a well-defined but discontinuous line of horizontally-laid slabs protruding not more than 0.1m through turf. Its shape, size and content suggest a cairn but its superimposition on an existing mound precludes precise assessment.
Published survey (1:2500) revised. Visited by OS (NKB) 17 8 1981.