Dunkeld Cathedral

📌 Dunkeld, Perth & Kinross
★★★

🛠️ Ruinous part of cathedral closed for masonry work – rest of site open (checked April 2024)

Dunkeld village seems too small to have a cathedral, but this strategic location on the River Tay has been a religious site for centuries. St Columba’s relics were brought to a church here from Iona in 849 AD, well before construction of the present cathedral’s choir began in the 13th century. The nave followed in 1406, with the tower added later in the same century. If you’ve already scrolled through the rest of the photos on this page, you’ll have noticed a lot of temporary scaffolding. This currently masks the fact that the nave is actually ruinous, though still with beautiful arches reminiscent of abbeys in the Borders. Blame the Reformation and Jacobite uprising: only the choir is currently used as a place of worship, and that’s only thanks to extensive repairs in the intervening centuries. There are also two small museums in the tower and chapter house, housing carved stonework and information panels about the town and cathedral.