"The Bell Tower
The tower is 22 feet 6 inches square, with walls about 5 feet in thickness. It is awkwardly placed in connection with the church, the walls not being parallel to those of the nave, while the tower projects into the south aisle from 6 feet at one side, to 7 feet 6 inches at the other.
The tower is six storeys in height. The lower four of these storeys form part of the original structure, and have small narrow apertures, except the fourth storey, which was probably the original top storey or belfry, and has a two-light window on each side (again Romanesque with rounded arched heads). The four lower storeys of the tower are all built with red freestone, the fifth storey is of yellow freestone, the sixth or top storey of a grey freestone, and the tower is finished with a parapet of red freestone. The two highest storeys are of a later date - on the parapet are the arms of Bishop Chisholm of about 1500. The top storey contains a large pointed window on each side with a central mullion.
The ground floor has a pointed ribbed barrel vault, and a wheel stair in the south-west corner.
The doorway of the tower is in the north wall, and now enters from the south aisle of the nave though is thought to have been originally an external door - the sill is about 3 feet above the existing level of the floor of the nave. The doorway is Romanesque is style (Norman, semicircular arch head). The tower may have been intended to serve as a place of defence against attack, as well as a belfry.
The tower houses nine change-ringing bells. The largest is E-flat and weighs 24 hundred-weight. The clock chimes the Alleluia quarters.
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 Robert Rowand Anderson from 1889 to 1893.
History
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. "