Dupplin, Old Parish Church And Graveyard

NO01NE 23 06428 19429

For (successor and present) parish church of Aberdalgie and Dupplin (NO 0795 2025), see N02SE 88.00.

(NO 0642 1943) Dupplin Church (NR) (site of)

OS 6" map, (1959)

The foundations of the old church of Dupplin remain within a small enclosed burial-ground. The first mention of a church here was in AD. 1296. The parish was united to Aberdalgie in AD. 1618.

NSA 1845.

At the site are the foundations of a building 15.0 x 4.0m, considered locally to be those of Dupplin Church; no documentary proof of this could be obtained. The walls, of uncoursed drystone, are 0.7m thick and are reduced almost to ground level on all sides except the north where the wall is 1.2m high.

Visited by OS (E G C) 23 November 1965.

Dupplin (Dunblane) was a parsonage in Bagimond. The church remained unappropriated in the 16th century within the patronage of the Lords of Oliphant, whose ancestors had possessed the lands from at least the early 13th century.

I B Cowan 1967.

Dupplin Graveyard. A few 18th century stones and monuments to 19th and 20th century Earls of Kinnoull. Late Victorian enclosing wall. Ruins of church, not much more than foundations approx 47 ft by 20 ft: no architectural features remain.

SDD List, May 1967.

The old parish church of Dupplin occupies a spur above the floodplain of the River Earn and is bounded by a particularly abrupt slope on the E. The church has been reduced to a heavily overgrown ruin, measuring 13.0m from E to W by 4.6m internally. The wall is 0.7m thick and stands up to 1.6m high on the N, but the E gable and E end of the S wall have been reduced to grass-grown footings. The walls are of rubble construction with pinning and are bonded with earth. Some mortar facing adheres to the inner face of the N wall. No ashlar work is visible, and the only other feature that can be seen is a butt joint on the inside of the N wall, 5.4m from the E end.

The present graveyard is defined by a rectangular enclosure, which takes in the foot of the E slope on the E and is evidently of 19th century date. Remains of a wall which runs S from the E end of the church along the head of this slope, indicate the presence of an earlier enclosure. The graveyard contains numerous 18th-century gravestones, the oldest examples noted bearing the dates 1722 and 1726.

Visited by RCAHMS (ARG, IF), 23 November 1995.