Please note - The cathedral is a working church and opening hours may vary due to services and events. Please check our website for more details
Dunblane Cathedral receives high but well earned praise for a building smaller than some English parish churches, lacking the architectural flourishes and cohesion of most other cathedrals; and one which only narrowly survived the threat of demolition to make way for the railway.
The tower is from the late 11th century, offset, and slightly squint on the south. Admire the Romanesque arched windows in the lower storeys, the upper stage and parapet which date from 1500, bearing the arms of Bishop Chisholm, which may originally have been freestanding.
The Nave, dating back to 1240 is possibly the finest part of the cathedral. It is eight bays long, tall and narrow, with aisles and a galleried clerestory. Its principal attraction is its simple proportions, clustered shafts, and graceful clerestory windows in the west wall.
The beautifully vaulted lower storey, often called the Lady Chapel, was probably used as a chapter house. The exterior of the cathedral is, with the exception of the west front and the tower, simply an expression of its interior. The west front, squeezed between two hefty, asymmetrical buttresses is the composition so admired by John Ruskin and consists of three stages tapering toward a slender apex. The thickened ground floor is given over to the magnificent west door and its flanking pointed arches. It is a peculiarity of this cathedral that its principal processional doorway faces the riverside, thus making impossible the grand views and aspect of the west front normally available in others.
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We advise checking ahead if the forecast is poor or if you are making a long journey. From Monday – Friday, 9am – 5pm short-term closures are listed on our closures page. At the weekends and on bank holidays this page will not be updated, and any unexpected closures will be posted only on X (formerly Twitter) using #HSclosure. If you have an urgent enquiry related to a site closure and your booking over the weekend please get in touch with ticketing@hes.scot
