Church of St Clement in Dingwall

A bit like yesterday today started off fairly dull but the afternoon was a lovely clear day with blue skies. I visited the church of St Clement in Dingwall, a former royal burgh, which I remember as being a very pretty church. Today the south side was very much of a mess partly because some of the old enclosures in the churchyard were in a very dangerous condition and cordoned off. Here's previous picture from this aspect. As I was leaving I got talking to a very nice helpful lady who told me that the church was very much a going concern but the churchyard was owned by Highland Council. I commented on the "windows" on the south side which had been filled in and she told me that they had never been windows on that side. Some rebuilding had been done by the owner of Tulloch Castle and he had required that the church looked as if it was facing his castle. Pretty crude windows have been painted on this side. She very kindly offered to let me in and this is one of the the pictures I took. You can see pride of place is given to the pulpit which makes up much of one side. The seat for the congregation form the other three sides and as you can see there is also a balcony - a common feature. As the whole purpose of a Calvinist church was to expound the word of God rather than for any kind of private devotion there was no need to open churches on any day other than Sunday. And this purpose explains the prominence given to the pulpit. I was once told that every church in Britain dedicated to St Clement has a connection with the Danes. I don't know how true this is but the name of the town "Dingwall" does have Danish or Norse origins. So it's quite an old name. On my way there I noticed that the road signs erected by Highland Council indicate the town as "Inbhir Pheofharain" for the benefit of all those Gaelic speakers who don't understand the word "Dingwall". I've been on this rant before and I suspect that number is exactly zero, nobody, zilch. But I'm not really convinced that the town has ever generally been known by that name. Mrs P's grandmother was a Gaelic speaker living in the area and I wouldn't be at all surprised if she called the place "Dingwall" (by chance the same as her surname). I think Highland Coucil have a whole department making up these names to put on road signs and confuse people with a surfeit of information.
Afterwards went a bit into the hills to the memorial to Neil Gunn. Very simple but in a great location and I intend to go and blip sometime in the not too distant future.