The Corpus of ROMANESQUE SCULPTURE in Britain & Ireland
Perth and Kinross (now)
Parish church
In medieval records, Dunning appears most commonly as Donyng, Dunnyne, Dinnin, and Duning. The church there is dedicated to St Serf (Servanus), who legend states died at Dunning. Transformed in 1687 and substantially again about 1810, the nave appears as a large rectangle with an extension built off the north side. A 12th-century west tower and sections of the north wall, however, have been preserved. In the interior, a gallery runs around three sides of the nave, with a later pulpit (removed from another church) set up against the south wall. Nothing medieval, other than the tower, is visible on the interior walls of the present church. The east arch of the tower has a pointed arch, the top of which is hidden behing the nave gallery. According to Groome (1884), the tower arch had been 'bricked up and disfigured' and had, during 'recent repairs' been reopened and restored. Wilson (J. and W.) stated that this occurred in 1868 when other repairs on the church were undertaken. Medieval fragments, including a cushion capital, a section of carved chevron, and a slightly curved stone carved with four small arches, have been built into the south exterior of the nave. Excavations in 2013 showed that the original church was built at the same time as the tower, foundation stones on the north side coursing with those of the nave. The tower is divided on the exterior by three stringcourses, which divide the tower visually into three main levels plus a roof space. Each of the levels is a different height, the lowest much higher than the others. There are two simple lights on the west exterior, one at ground-floor level and the other at 1st-floor level, both of which splay inwards. The main upper level of the tower has twinned openings on each of the four sides. A number of additional openings appear on both the interior and exterior of the tower, some of which are likely to have been holes for scaffolding, while others are of a larger rectangular form. It has been suggested by some writers that the upper levels, on the exterior, are tapered. Whether this is correct, it is not obvious to the naked eye. Towards the west end of the north exterior of the nave is a 12th-century doorway, which has been blocked on the interior, and into the S exterior of the tower there is a later-inserted rectangular doorway. Scars on the E exterior of the tower provide evidence for an earlier, steeper nave roof. On the interior of the tower, in the SW corner, a spiral staircase leads to the upper levels.
In 2008, excavations uncovered part of a possible 8th-century vallum ditch. Later excavations, carried out between 2012 and 2014, found foundations of a building earlier than the tower, as well as evidence that when the tower was built, it's foundations disturbed previous graves.
Parish church
Built into the eastern end of the exterior S nave wall is an arch decorated with sawtooth. No early record of where this comes from has been found, but MacGibbon and Ross (1897) state that it formed part of the S doorway of the nave, which was later blocked up when a new doorway just E of it was built. The exterior base of the eastern wall, which comes from the medieval church, survives, but other parts of the church have been changed at various times, particularly during the later-18th century.The present parish church of Forgandenny appears first to have been built as a plain rectangle in plan. Later, a south extension was added and a north extension (taken down but known through excavations). Still later, a porch was built onto the west end. A major restoration took place in 1902-3. A more modern, heraldic memorial plaque has been inserted into the S exterior of the church, just below the medieval sawtooth arch. This refers to the Oliphant of Condie family.
Ruined parish church
The old church of Muthill survives in ruins. The W tower was built in the 12th century, which has carved work in two of the upper openings and on an exterior stringcourse. It has four external levels, each of the top two slightly narrower than the one below it, and has a crow-stepped roof facing east-west. According the MacGibbon and Ross (1896), the interior walls of the tower were 'plumb' and had 'neither corbels nor projecting courses to carry floors'. The remaining ruins of the main parts of the church come from reconstruction and alterations carried out in later centuries. As a result of these, the tower, which appears to have originally been free-standing, became enclosed on the north, east and south sides by the nave and aisles. The old church was condemned in 1825 and a new church begun on a different site in 1826. Access to the tower is through a doorway later inserted into the E face, but another doorway existed at some point in time on the W face, which was later blocked up. It is uncertain which of these is in the position where the original entrance point to the tower was located. Repair work was undertaken on the tower in the late-19th century and in the 20th century, especially on the upper exterior, where cracks had formed.
Round tower
The round tower stands in the SW section of the churchyard, isolated from the church. It is built of coursed dressed-ashlars on both the interior and exterior faces, with a change in stone type observable above the lower section. The only significant elements are on the exterior: the raised N doorway and the four window openings of the highest level. There are no stringcourses on the exterior face, except for that at the top of the structure, which appears to be of later date. Only a few small plain openings light the the lower interior levels. Gordon stated in his published itinerary of 1726 that the interior of the tower was 'hollow' like a 'deep draw well'. In a letter to his sister in 1760, Pococke reported that the tower had seven stories and that the internal 'floors extend to rather more than three quarters of the circle, the rope of the bell coming down by the open space'. With no stairway built into the interior, it seems that ladders were the only means of ascending the various levels. The N doorway, which inclines slightly towards the top is heavily weathered and shows no distinctive decoration, while the upper window openings have been covered with some sort of protective coating. In the Statistical Accounts of 1794, it was stated that the church, which stood a short distance NE of the tower, 'is remarkable for nothing but its antiquity' and that there was no record of when it was built. However, in Pococke's letter of 1760 he wrote that the church was small and had a door of 'the plainest Saxon architecture' (i.e. round-headed). He wrote that it was also believed that the 'great church' had been built to the NE of this, but no longer existed. The church which was still existent at that time was taken down in 1802 and a new church built north of it, apparently using stones from the earlier church. In 1821, excavations of the base of the tower discovered a skeleton and green urn buried inside the tower, below which were flagstones and more skeletons. Brash drew a section of the tower for his article of 1862, which showed six floors built onto the interior stone stringcourses, separating the tower into five main areas. There were, as well, a basement level and top parapet. Butler (1893) reported that the Earl of Home had introduced a spiral staircase into the tower so that visitors could climb to the top, and that some repair work had been undertaken. This would have required the removal of the previous floorings. The present metal spiral staircase fills the entire interior space. New stones from various repairs are evident in the stonework.
Parish church
Just south of the present church is a small building orientated north-south, the north entrance of which is built using several reused medieval stones. This doorway, which is segmental headed, has two orders and a label. Decorative features include two broadleaf capitals, dogtooth and filleted-roll voussoirs. The parish church at Clunie, in the district of Stormont, was rebuilt in 1840, replacing a church reportedly built “about the time of the Reformation” which had, itself, been repaired in 1788. This earlier church was said to have “neither comeliness nor proportion” (McRitchie, 1793 Statistical Account). It is unknown for certain the original location of the medieval, re-used stones, but it is assumed that they were part of a previous church on the site, although the possibility of their coming from the former castle cannot be discounted.
Cathedral, former
A medieval coped grave stone at Dunkeld is kept in the ground-floor space of the W tower of the former cathedral church. On one side of the stone a tesselated pattern has been cut in, while carved on the other side is a stepped, Calvary base and a section of shaft for a cross (the top of the cross no longer exists). The stone seems to have been moved from the graveyard into the tower (Simpson, p. 20), but nothing appears to be known about it prior to its removal. Within the actual building fabric of the church, nothing earlier than the 13th century survives. After the Reformation, the church was allowed to fall into ruin, except for the chancel which was used as the parish church. In 1689 most of the town was destroyed and burned. At the same time, Bishops of the cathedral were abolished. Repairs were made to the eastern end of the church in 1691 and again in 1792. In 1814-15, the former cathedral church received extensive restoration work. More restoration work was carried out in 1908.