The village of Dunning is situated in Lower Strathearn, about 1¾ mile south-east of the railway station of the same name. The following historical facts connected with the church and district are from a scarce “History of Dunning,” by the late Rev. John Wilson, minister of the parish.
“Dunning,” Mr. Wilson says, “when first heard of in authentic history, formed part of the ancient Stewartry or Earldom of Strathearn, and dates back to a remote antiquity,” the Earls or Courts Palatine of Strathearn dating from before the Norman Conquest. When the foreign immigrants arrived in Scotland, in the twelfth century, under David I., “there were families of the ancient Scottish or Celtic blood who held their own, and maintained their native customs amid the new-fangled innovations of the Saxon and Norman chivalry. One of the most famous of these native magnates was Malis, Earl of Strathearn, who acted a prominent part in the disastrous Battle of the Standard.”
In the course of time this reserve on the part of the native nobles wore away, and we find that Gilbert, the grandson of Malis, “took charters from the king for the lands which his fathers had held by their swords. He connected himself by marriage with the new-comers, and rivalled the most zealous of the followers of King David in his munificence to the Church.” He “richly endowed the neighbouring Abbey of Canons Regular at Inchaffray, annexing to it the tithes of many of the surrounding parishes,” as is shown by the foundation charter of the Abbey in the library of the Earl of Kinnoull, “dated in the year 1200 from the incarnation of our Lord, in the thirty-fifth year of the reign of King William.”
[Illustration: FIG. 171.--Tower of St. Serf’s, Dunning. From North-West.]
In a charter of confirmation, nineteen years later, Gilbert, in addition to his former liberality, grants to Inchaffray, “_Ecclesiam sancti servani de Dunnyne_,” the “church dedicated to St. Servanus, or Serf, at Dunning;” so that we have here proof of the existence of a church at Dunning in the year 1219, and it may be inferred that it did not exist in the year 1200, from its not being mentioned in the charters of that year. The date, therefore, of the erection of this church is narrowed to the early years of the thirteenth century, and there need be no hesitation in assigning to that time the present tower and certain other portions of