Dunning

Old Parish Church of St Serf

Dunning is a little off the beaten track, but that's part of what makes it so special. It was missed by the railway builders of the 19th Century and by the road builders of the 20th. It lies at the foot of the Ochil Hills, two miles south of the A9 dual carriageway from Stirling to Perth.

St Serf's from the South The Dupplin Cross Dunning Parish Church War Memorial and Village Green

The village, like others in the area, was largely destroyed by Jacobites retreating from the Battle of Sheriffmuir in January 1716, so most of what you see today has been built since (see our Historical Timeline).

This is certainly not true of the centrepiece of the village, the Old Parish Church of St Serf. The church was built in about 1200 by Gilbert, Earl of Strathearn. Of a number of remnants from the original church, the tower is the most obvious. This is very reminiscent of others of the period at nearby Muthill and at St Rules in St Andrews. The decorative arch connecting the body of the church with the base of the tower is also an original feature.

Maggie Wall's Memorial

The Kirkstyle Inn

In 1678 an upper gallery and external stairs were added, and in 1810 extensive rebuilding of the body of the church left the T-shaped structure focused on the centrally placed communion table that you see today.

Especially striking are the dark wood balconies providing an additional layer of seating in all three arms of the church, suggesting that in 1810 the congregation was extremely large. The church passed into the care of Historic Scotland in 1978 and is open to visitors in summer.

In 2002 St Serfs became the home of the 9th Century Dupplin Cross, a wonderfully carved pictish cross originally sited on a hillside east of the village but housed in the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh for some years. This is now on display in the base of the tower, visible from the body of the church.

The rest of Dunning retains the small village feel that is so often swept away by modern development elsewhere. St Serfs and the village shops are located overlooking Tron Square, the large open area in the centre of the village. Nearby is the Kirkstyle Inn and Restaurant, overlooking Dunning Burn as it makes its way north to join the River Earn.

The eastern end of the village houses an attractive green, complete with the war memorial and the Victorian Parish Church that replaced St Serfs as the centre of religious life in the village.

If you head west out of Dunning, look out in the fields on your right for a stone cairn topped with a small cross, accessed through a gap in the wall. The painted inscription reads: Maggie Wall burnt here 1657 as a witch.

This touching and rather spooky monument marks a black period in Scottish history. In 1597 King James VI published a book on witchcraft and launched a witch-hunt that over the following hundred years would claim the lives of over 1000 alleged witches, including 800 women. Maggie Wall was clearly one of them.