Thurso, UK - A campaign has been launched to save a ruined church whose long history includes a battle and complaints of boys falling from its rafters.
Thurso Heritage Society wants to preserve Old St Peter's Church amid concerns of damage caused by vandals.
A church has stood on the site since Viking occupation of the far north.
Residents of Thurso fought off an Irish raid near St Peter's in 1649, while records include complaints about boys sitting in its rafters during sermons.
Alan McIvor, of the heritage society, said: "It is perhaps too easy to forget that in the oldest part of Thurso there is one of the most extraordinary buildings in the country.
"But it has deteriorated badly from the elements and acts of vandalism. For if it is to remain then it is in need of urgent attention."
Town's hangman
The society has launched a petition on its website calling for support to its efforts to preserve the ruin.
St Peter's colourful past includes the bloody battle that took place one Sunday morning in 1649.
An Irish raider known as Donald Macalister Mullach had hoped to catch the locals unaware, but they had been tipped off about his planned attack.
Led by Sir James Sinclair, the locals armed themselves and defeated the raiders.
Macalister was said to have been killed by one of Sinclair's servants cutting a button from his master's coat and firing it from a musket.
Disturbing worshippers
The kirk session would hold hearings and decide how people whose actions were deemed to be criminal should be punished.
In 1701, a woman who had been "intimate" with the mate from a Dutch ship had her head shaved and was paraded through Thurso by the town's hangman.
Later records detail young boys in the congregation sitting in the rafters to listen to sermons.
In 1726, the records tell of some boys endangering themselves and disturbing worshippers below by falling from the beams.
The kirk session also received a letter in 1786 complaining about dung and rubbish being dumped on graves.