St Serf's Church, Dunning

St Serf's Church is a T-plan gabled church, largely dating from 1808-1810, but incorporating fabric from the 12th century. At the west end stands a 12th-century tower, later fitted with a saddle-back roof and crow-stepped gables. The building is constructed from squared and coursed rubble with ashlar margins and raised cills.

The six-stage tapered tower features band courses at the upper levels and a weathercock on the roof ridge. Small square openings are present on all faces of the tower, with clocks to each face at the upper stages and round-arched openings above, each containing two lights separated by a capitalised column. A timber entrance door is found on the south elevation.

The church was extensively remodelled in 1808-10 by Alexander Bowie. The south elevation is symmetrical, with a central pair of tall, pointed-arch windows featuring simple tracery. These are flanked by rectangular entrances with timber doors, and rectangular window openings are present in the outer bays.

The east elevation includes a late 17th-century forestair leading to an entrance door for the east gallery. The lintel of this door is carved with the impaled arms and initials LAR and LMB, along with the date 1687.

The eastern section of the north elevation is windowless, showcasing a row of corbels. The north aisle has rectangular window openings and doors. A forestair is situated in the northwest re-entrant angle, leading to a roll-moulded doorway. This obscures a blocked-up 12th-century doorway that would have originally accessed the original nave. The church roof is covered in grey slates with raised skews.

The interior, inspected in 2016, features a centrally placed timber pulpit on the south wall, alongside timber pews and panelled timber galleries to the north, east, and west. A pointed-arch opening with scalloped capitals at the east end of the church leads to the base of the tower. Stained glass windows, by the Edinburgh firms of A. Ballantine & Son and A. Ballantine and Gardiner, date from 1899-1910, with large south-facing windows depicting Justice, Humility, and Fidelity.

The tower contains a stone spiral staircase. A 9th-century Pictish cross, known as the Dupplin Cross, is on display at the base of the tower, having been relocated to St Serf's Church in 2002. The cross is carved from a single block of red sandstone and commemorates King Constantine, who ruled the Picts and Scots from around 811-820.