Dunblane Cathedral

Location: The Cross, Dunblane FK15 0AQ
Opening times: 1 April to 30 September 10.00am – 4.30pm (Monday to Saturday), 2.00pm – 4.30pm (Sunday); 1 October to 30 March 10.00am – 3.30pm daily except Sunday. Note: Last entry half hour before stated closing time. Closed for lunch: 12.30pm – 1.30pm.
Entry: Free
Access: Free parking on street.

Dunblane Cathedral is modest compared to Durham or Lincoln Cathedrals, but as I leave the M9 and drive along the B8033 towards the town it comes briefly and thrillingly into view, commanding the landscape just as much as those Norman giants of the south. Perhaps it stands on the “Fortified Hill of Blane” which gives the town its name, although the connection between this area and that obscure sixth century Scottish saint is unknown.

I find a parking spot next to the cathedral and wander through a white-dusted graveyard, where frosted headstones twinkle in the mid-morning sun. From the outside the cathedral’s most striking aspect is the Romanesque bell tower, its dual tones a clear indication the upper stories were a later addition. The lower four stories pre-date the cathedral; when built in the early 1100s the tower was free-standing. The two upper floors were added between 1487 and 1526 when the cathedral was under the stewardship of Bishop James Chisolm, and the spire is a Johnny-come-lately from the Victorian era.

*The cathedral with its distinctive two-tone tower.*

Although a sacred site at least since the 800s and known to be a bishopric by the 1100s, the building we see today is the vision of Bishop Clement, who arrived in Dunblane in 1233. He inherited some roofless church buildings, which he promptly had demolished, and incorporated the tower into his new cathedral, although, in a classic case of cowboy builders existing before actual cowboys, church and tower never quite aligned.

The tomb of Bishop Clement. The plaque on the wall reads: “To the Glory of God. Bishop Clement (1233 – 1258). To mark the 750th anniversary of the consecration of Bishop Clement by whom the cathedral was built.” It also commemorates a 1983 visit by the Queen Mother.

The cathedral survived the attentions of Edward I in the early 1300s but was less lucky come the Reformation starting in 1559. That year the Earl of Argyll ordered it purged of all Catholic trappings, and within three years a minister had replaced the bishop. The screen that had separated the nave, which accommodated the common people, from the chancel, the domain of the clergy, became an ad hoc exterior wall when it was decided to use the chancel as a parish church open to all. As a result, the nave was allowed to fall into ruin, becoming a variation of the roofless building Bishop Clement encountered several centuries earlier. With its combination of smaller active church attached to larger neglected ruin it would have looked like how Dunkeld Cathedral, which suffered a similar fate, looks today.

The great Victorian art historian and critic John Ruskin liked it that way, calling Dunblane Cathedral “the loveliest ruin in Scotland”, but much Ruskin’s horror, plans were afoot to restore the nave as the town’s growing population required a bigger place of worship. The job fell to Robert Rowand Anderson, arguably Scotland’s most renowned architect, whose works included the Glasgow’s Central Hotel and the Scottish National Portrait Gallery in Edinburgh. More significantly, Anderson was a serial restorer of churches; as well as Dunblane he was involved in restoring Iona and Paisley Abbeys amongst others. Thanks to Anderson’s adherence to the thirteenth century original, Bishop Clement’s cathedral rose phoenix-like at the end of the nineteenth.

Looking down the chancel from the altar, past the choir stalls and the screen that separates the chancel from the nave. The mediaeval version of the screen would have completely blocked the view of the laymen, as only members of the priesthood were allowed to see and enter the chancel. The three black slabs in the foreground mark the graves of Margaret, Euphemia, and Sybilla, who all died of poisoning in 1501. Margaret was the mistress of King James IV of Scotland, and one theory posits that English agents poisoned her as they feared the king intended marrying her, when their preferred candidate was Margaret Tudor, daughter of Henry VII. The sisters were just in the wrong place at the wrong time. The more prosaic explanation, and the generally accepted one, is that they all died of food poisoning after dining together.

*The view of the nave from the western doorway, which would have been the main entrance to the cathedral pre-Reformation.*

*Figure of an unspecified king in the elaborate screen between the nave and the chancel.*

Some of the cathedral’s outstanding stain glass artwork, all dating from the late 19th / early 20th century as the originals fell victim to the iconoclasts of the Reformation. The window on the right commemorates Lieutenant-Colonel John Lawrie Boyd Wilson, an elder of Dunblane Cathedral who was killed at Gallipoli in 1915. The figures represent St. George and Hope.

This dragon or winged serpent is on a misericord that form part of the Ochiltree Choir Stalls, the cathedral’s oldest surviving piece of furniture. They are named for John Ochiltree, who is believed to have commissioned them after being appointed bishop in the early 1430s. Despite the misery suggested in the name, misericords were in fact ‘mercy seats’ which supported people standing through long periods of prayer.

Although still functioning as a working church Dunblane Cathedral is under the care of Historic Environment Scotland (HES). I was met at the door by Finlay, HES’s enthusiastic and very knowledgeable representative. Although some of the information in this entry came from the official guidebook and some from the internet, much of it came from Finlay, although I take full ownership of any errors. As stated previously in this website, I love it when I visit a place where the guide knows his or her stuff and is genuinely passionate about it. It truly enhances the visitor experience.

This small room at the end of the south aisle is called the Clement Chapel and was restored in 1964 by Britain’s first female professional architect, Edith Burnet Hughes. The room’s original purpose is uncertain, but Finlay thought its size and location within the church suggested it was the cell of an anchorite, a person who withdraws from secular society to lead a life of devotion.

The oldest and newest stone in the cathedral. The Celtic-style cross (left) was discovered during excavations in 1873 and dates to the ninth century and is evidence the site was sacred long before the cathedral was built. The stone on the left is inscribed with four verses on the innocence of childhood and commemorates the victims of the shooting spree at Dunblane Primary School on 13 March 1996.

*Noah’s Ark detail on the baptismal font.*

*A rather festive rowan tree in the cathedral churchyard.*

Destination or Diversion?

I thoroughly enjoyed my trip to Dunblane Cathedral, but my visit fell just short of the hour mark so is classed as a diversion. However, I am going to extend today’s visit to the area by also going to Doune Castle, just 5 ½ miles away. Anyone considering a visit to both Dunblane Cathedral and Doune Castle should be aware that the route between them runs past the striking David Stirling Memorial, which has already been covered in these pages but is worth a visit too.

Now is also as good a time as any to reiterate that a destination is not better than a diversion, or vice versa. These distinctions are made purely on time taken to do the site or tourist attraction justice, not on any perceived quality of the site itself. Diversions are precisely that – places you might want to stop off at while on your way to somewhere else, whereas destinations cannot be done justice by a quick visit.

Destination or Diversion?

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