Dunkeld Cathedral

PricingFreeFree for all visitors

Free entry for everyone

Entry

Free for everyone

Pricing details

Free entry for everyone; no membership card is needed.

ParkingNo car park

Arrive on foot, by bike or by public transport.

Parking details

Historic Scotland names no parking: its directions are simply the end of Cathedral Street in the village of Dunkeld, off the A9. The parish says shops, cafes, the station, bus stops and car parks are all nearby; the council's pay-and-display North Car Park on Atholl Street, where the public toilets are, is about 300 m away and the Tay Terrace car park a little further. The car park beside the cathedral is the Church of Scotland's private one. Reviewers find parking hard at busy times.

Driving pin: the cathedral gates at the end of Cathedral Street, 91 m from Historic Scotland's own pin in the grounds. Dunkeld and Birnam railway station is within easy walking distance; the village is on the A9 about 12 miles north of Perth.

About

Dunkeld Cathedral stands on the banks of the Tay at the end of Cathedral Street, regarded by some as Scotland's most romantic cathedral and in church use since 849, when Kenneth MacAlpin brought relics of St Columba here from Iona to keep them from the Vikings. Building ran over some 250 years: the choir of the mid-1200s, rebuilt in the early 1300s, the nave begun in 1406 with details borrowed from the Low Countries, and the west tower from 1469. The nave lost its roof soon after the Reformation and remains a roofless ruin, closed for conservation under scaffolding, but the grounds among old trees and the restored choir, still the Church of Scotland parish church, are open and free, with early carved stones including the Apostles Stone of the 800s and a free QR-code audio tour. Reviewers love the peaceful riverside lawns with their benches and rabbits, warn that interpretation is thin and village parking is hard, and note that the church closes for services, weddings and concerts.

Check today’s timesPick a day for times and prices

25 Dec–1 Apr: Thu 09:30–17:30, last entry 17:00
From 2 Apr: Daily 09:30–17:30, last entry 17:00

Today, Saturday 24 October

Historic Environment Scotland has not published times for this date yet.

Opening times may change at short notice.

Historic Scotland publishes summer hours only: 1 April to 30 September daily 9.30am to 5.30pm, last entry 30 minutes before closing, closed Christmas Day, Boxing Day and 1 and 2 January. The parish, which opens the choir church, says the cathedral and grounds open 10am to 4pm from October to March. The west end (the roofless nave and tower) is closed to visitors while conservation work continues, with no reopening date; the grounds and the choir church are open. Access can be restricted for services (Sunday mornings at 11am in the cathedral from Easter to Remembrance Sunday), weddings and concerts.

Paved paths can be slippery when wet. No toilets, cafe or shop on site: public toilets are at the council's North Car Park. The parish offers free downloadable guidebooks in four languages and a QR-code audio tour at points inside the church.

Photo: The north side of Dunkeld Cathedral across the lawn, with the west tower and roofless nave on the left and the roofed choir church on the right. Diliff, CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Dunkeld_Cathedral_Exterior,_Dunkeld,_UK_-_Diliff.jpg. Licence: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0. Resized and cropped for display; derivatives retain the source licence.