The Diocese of Dunkeld

Our parishes are 2 of the 35 parishes in the Diocese of Dunkeld which covers the areas of Dundee, Perth, Angus, Clackmannan and parts of north Fife.

The town of Dunkeld in Perthshire is thought to date back to the sixth century when a monastery was founded beside the River Tay. Today, the semi-ruined medieval cathedral of Dunkeld stands in wooded park land, close to the river. Once the centre of religious administration in the area, the church was surrounded by the homes of the clergy, their servants and church workers, and the town of Dunkeld itself.

The original monastery was certainly established by 849, when the relics of St. Columba were brought here from the island of Iona by the first King of Scotland Kenneth MacAlpin. Dunkeld then became the centre of ecclesiastical organisation in Scotland, a position it held until St. Andrews replaced it sometime before the mid-tenth century. The Abbots of Dunkeld were important and significant clergymen in the medieval church. Two of them were killed in battle and one was married to the king’s daughter. Abbots in these times were not purely spiritual leaders of course, since the Church had become a powerful political and economic institution. 

A few remains of the early church of Dunkeld are still there today, notably certain carved stones, including the so-called ‘Apostles Stone’, which depicts a large group of figures and beasts. In the eleventh and twelfth centuries the Church underwent a sort of renewal in structure and organisation. A Bishop was appointed at Dunkeld in place of the Abbot in 1114. The chronicles of the medieval bishops show them to be a group of very different sorts of men, with some very colourful histories. Some were ‘worldly’ men, deeply involved in the politics of their time, and some were deeply spiritual. At least one was exiled, another poisoned, and several played an important part in the building of the church we see today.