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Dunblane Cathedral is the larger of the two Church of Scotland parish churches serving Dunblane, near the city of Stirling, in central Scotland.
The lower half of the tower is pre-Romanesque from the 11th century, and was originally free-standing, with an upper part added in the 15th century. Most of the rest of the building is Gothic, from the 13th century. The building was restored by Rowand Anderson from 1889 to 1893.

The church is dedicated to the 6th century saint, St Blane, and this gives its name to the settlement: dunblane meaning hill of St Blane. The church also had an altar to St Laurence. The oldest surviving part of the church is the lower four storeys of the tower which date from around 1100AD. The upper two storeys of the tower date from around 1500. The Cathedral was once the seat of the bishops of Dunblane (also sometimes called 'of Strathearn'), until the abolition of bishops after the Glorious Revolution in 1689. There are remains of the vaults of the episcopal palace to the south of the cathedral. Technically, it is no longer a cathedral, as there are no bishops in the Church of Scotland, which is a Presbyterian denomination. After the abolition of prelacy, the choir became the parish church but the nave fell out of use, and its roof had fallen in by about 1600.

It contains the graves of Margaret Drummond of Stobhall, a mistress of King James IV of Scotland and her two sisters, all said to have been poisoned. Unusually, the building is owned by the Crown, and is looked after by Historic Scotland rather than the church governance; there is no entrance charge. The building is largely 13th century in date, though it incorporates an originally freestanding bell-tower (like the example at Muthill) of 11th century date on its south side. This tower was increased in height in the 15th century, a change clearly visible in the colour of the stonework, and in the late Gothic style of the upper storey's windows.

The choir dates from the 13th century and has a long vaulted chamber which served as chapter house and sacristy on its north side. The choir contains the mural tomb of the Cathedral's founder, Bishop Clement. Many of the 15th century choir stalls, which have carved misericords (including one with an unusual depiction of a bat) are preserved within the choir. Further, more elaborate, canopied stalls are preserved at the west end of the nave. Dunblane has the largest surviving collection of medieval Scottish ecclesiastical woodwork after King's College Chapel, Aberdeen. Some detached fragments are displayed in the town's museum.

The cathedral was restored in the late 19th century under the control of Rev Alexander Ritchie DD, who commissioned architect Robert Rowand Anderson to oversee the works, with these works completed by Sir Robert Lorimer in 1912.

Stained Glass :
West window - Tree of Jesse by Clayton and Bell placed 1906 by Robert Younger, Baron Blanesburgh
Baptismal window (over font) John the Baptist in the River Jordan, by Douglas Strachan 1926
Window over south-west door, St George and Hope by Louis Davis 1915 in memory of Col. J Boyd Wilson, a church elder
The Barty window, the Song of Solomon by Louis Davis erected 1917
The Apostles (south-east corner) in memory of Mr and Mrs Wallace of Glassingall
John the Baptist and the Good Shepherd (south-east corner) in memory of Rev Dr Henry M Hamilton c.1905
Main East Window (choir), the Life of Christ by Charles Eamer Kempe 1901 in memory of John Alexander Hay
South window (choir) Three Holy Children from the Book of Daniel by Louis Davis presented by Robert Younger, Baron Blanesburgh
Allegory window (choir), four angels, four directions
Chaos window (choir), a curiosity representing Scott's tragic journey to the South Pole and naming the five men killed
The Earth window (choir)
The Humanity window (choir) Adam and Eve with Cain and Abel
Memorial window (Lady Chapel) St Blane and a Crusader, Bishop Maurice and a WWI soldier, by Douglas Strachan c, 1922
The Lord's Supper (Lady Chapel) by Douglas Strachan c.1922
The Healing of the Sick (Lady Chapel) by Douglas Strachan c.1922
The Transfiguration (Lady Chapel) by Gordon Webster c.1922
Christ justifying harvesting on the Sabbath (Lady Chapel) by Gordon Webster
Christ on the Sea of Galilee (Lady Chapel) by Gordon Webster
Ruskin window (over west door) only visible from outside
Burials
Preserved within the arcaded nave are two early Christian stones, a cross-slab and a possible architectural frieze, survivals from an early medieval church on the same site, founded by or dedicated to the 'Blane' whose name is commemorated in the name of the town.

Dunblane Cathedral churchyard contains two war graves, including that of William Stirling, a gunner in the Royal Marine Artillery during World War I.

Monuments of interest :

Bishop Clement of Dunblane (d.1258)
Malise II, Earl of Strathearn (d.1271)
The Three Drummond Sisters, poisoned, 16th century
Rev James Finlayson DD (1758-1808)
Sir David Russell (1809-1884)
James Stirling (mathematician) (1690-1770) and the Stirlings of Garden
John Stirling of Kippendavie (d.1812) by Peter Turnerelli
Jane Stirling (1804-1859) daughter of the above
Dunblane Commemoration

In the nave of the Cathedral is a standing stone by the monumental sculptor Richard Kindersley which commemorates the events of 13 March 1996 – the Dunblane Massacre. The quotations on the stone are by E. V. Rieu ("He called a little child to him..."), Richard Henry Stoddard ("...the spirit of a little child"), Bayard Taylor ("But still I dream that somewhere there must be The spirit of a child that waits for me") and W. H. Auden ("We are linked as children in a circle dancing").

Dunblane Cathedral dates back to the 12th century, most of what stands being constructed during the bishopric of Clement in the 13th century. When Clement, a Dominican Friar, was appointed Bishop in 1233, he probably found standing only the tower (four lower storeys of the present tower) and a church attached to the tower, but incomplete. This church he removed in order to build a larger.

He complained to the Pope that the Cathedral was largely unbuilt, that he had no place to lay his head, and insufficient revenues to support a Bishopric, and that the services were conducted by a rural chaplain only. The Pope in 1237 authorised the Bishops of Glasgow and of Dunkeld to visit Dunblane, and, if they saw fit, to give to the Bishop of Dunblane a fourth of the tithes of the churches of the diocese, so that he might build his Cathedral and organise his diocese; and with these monies Clement, before he died in 1258, was able to build the Lady Chapel and most of the Cathedral largely as it now stands.

For the next 300 years until the Reformation the Cathedral was gradually filled with more and more elaborate furnishings. In 1560 the Church of Scotland became reformed or protestant. The use of the Cathedral was now drastically altered and the congregation needed only the choir for use as the parish church. The roof of the nave fell in towards the end of the 16th century and the nave remained roofless for 300 years, during which the congregation worshipped in the choir. In 1889 a great restoration of the whole Cathedral was begun under the guidance of Sir Rowand Anderson, a leading Scottish architect, when the nave was reroofed and public worship restored in it in 1893. A further restoration of the choir was carried out under another noted Scottish architect, Sir Robert Lorimer, in 1914.

Dunblane Cathedral rises above the town and river and is located on an ancient site, thought to have been sacred from the 7th century. Two cross slabs found show (see site 08213) religious activity here in the 8th and 9th century. An ecclesiastical structure was well established here by 1155, when first mention of a bishop is made in the written record. When the Dominican friar Clement arrived at Dunblane in 1237 the cathedral was said to be in a ruinous state with the finances of the diocese in disarray. The cathedral was rebuilt on its current site when new funds were found. By the end of the 13th century the cathedral had an aisled nave with an older southern tower, an aisleless chancel and an adjoining north range including a sacristy and Chapter House.

The rectangular chancel is six bays in length and is quite narrow. Running along the north side of the chancel is the two-storey range that included the Chapter House and sacristy, with a treasury and chapel above. The nave is eight bays long and has aisles along both its sides. Buttresses mark most of the bays, while the two east bays are narrower than the rest to accommodate chapels. The bays have a variety of windows, most of which are of the lancet variety, arranged in groups within containing arches. There are also a number of traceried windows in the western bays of the nave. At the clearstorey level, the bays are divided by gabled pilasters. Halfway along the south (side) wall of the nave is the original bell tower, which is the only part of the earlier structure to survive and projects irregularly from the nave. The lower four stages of the tower date to around the early to mid 12th century, while the upper two storeys and parapet were added in the 16th century. The tower was constructed in dark red sandstone rubble with the stages marked by stringcourses. There are numerous, fairly small, arched and lintel openings, which are larger in the original belfry (fourth) stage.

The later stages of the tower were constructed in ashlar stone and were added to give the tower a more appropriate scale that fitted in with the by-now larger cathedral. The main, processional entrance of the cathedral was situated in the western front, while the lay entrance was in the southern aisle. The west front is Gothic in style and rises elegantly over the Allan Water. The doorway is centrally placed in-between the buttresses, and is deeply recessed. The archway is heavily moulded (now weathered) and carried on numerous shafts. Above the doorway is a set of three two-light windows, each tall and narrow, with the central one being wider than the others. The northern massive buttress of the west front contains a spiral stair to the upper level (clearstorey and other passages) while the southern one has a small chamber, now a chapel but may have been an anchorite's cell. The Reformation limited worship to the galleried chancel, and the nave had lost its roof by 1622. The tower and south aisle were increasingly being used as places of burial.

The cathedral ruins began to be restored in the early 19th century. Work on the chancel and part of the north range was carried out by James Gillespie Graham between 1816 and 1819 and included new floor levels being inserted. English 'Perpendicular' tracery was inserted into the windows of the south flank and the north side of the presbytery. In 1860-2 the original Medieval roofs of the chancel and north range were replaced with flatter versions by Thomas Brown Fun. Five years later the tower and spire were repaired by H. M. Office of Works, reflecting an increased responsibility to the cathedrals of Scotland by the state. The chancel was in need of repair again by 1873 and work was carried out to restore its original floor levels and the windows had their new tracery removed in an effort to return the chancel to its original appearance. The most intense period of reconstruction occurred between 1889-93 and was carried out by R. Rowand Anderson.

It was decided that the chancel was not big enough to cope with the growing numbers of people attending services and as a consequence the ruined nave was brought back into use. It was attempted to rebuild the nave to its original Medieval appearance, although several aspects of the structure, such as the window tracery, had to be guessed at. In addition, gables were inserted into the side walls to give the impression of transeptal aisles and arcaded openings were inserted into the chancel walls. The interior furnishings of the cathedral date largely to the Victorian work. This includes the nave's ribbed wagon ceiling designed by R. Rowand Anderson in 1889-93, the chancel's communion table (Rowand Anderson) and screen by Robert Lorimer. There are other oak furnishings and panelling. The cathedral is in good condition and in the care of Historic Scotland. It is in full ecclesiastical use. The cathedral has a handbell apparently dated to 1612 and a ring of eight bells cast by Taylor's of Loughborough. There are numerous other bells in the ancient tower, with some in use and others preserved on the floor.