Dunblane Cathedral
High but well earned praise for a building smaller than some English parish churches, and 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.<P> The Tower, late 11th century, offset, and slightly squint on the south, with romanesque arched windows in the lower storeys, the upper stage and parapet from c1500, bearing the arms of Bishop Chisholm, may originally have been freestanding. The Nave, c. 1240, possible the finest part of the Cathedral, is eight bays long, tall and narrow, with aisles and a galleried clerestorey. Its principal attraction is its simple proportions, clustered shafts, and graceful clestorey windows, in the west wall. It was never stone vaulted and, after four centuries of ruin, was restored by Sir Robert Rowand Anderson at the expense of the proprietor of Glassingal in 1889 with a timber roof not dissimilar to that of Glasgow Cathedral Choir.<P> The Choir, in constant use as the parish church was never really ruined (save perhaps by James Gillespie Graham 1817-19 who removed its original tracery). The beautifully vaulted lower storey, often called the Lady Chapel, was probably used as a Chapter house. Sir Robert Lorimer designed the stalls, organcase and screen in 1912.<P> 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.
Contact
Mr
Howard
Allen
The Cross
Dunblane
Perthshire
FK15 0AQ
Scotland
Tel: +44 (1786) 823388
