The roofless remains of this rough cruciform church are enclosed within a rubble-slab wall. It was constructed in thin slabs of local rubble stone. Its dedication to St Peter suggests an early date, thought to be around the 12th century.
It was the chapel of the Bishop of Caithness when he was at his summer residence at Scrabster. It was later used as the Parish Church. Although the church is believed to date from the 12th century or even earlier, the present structure dates mainly from the 15th and 16th centuries. Old St Peter’s Kirk in Thurso is the town’s only category “A” listed structure and one of Thurso’s most ancient buildings of the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland.