Church Overview

This late decorated Gothic church was built of local stone, with smooth bands and a cross on the gable to the road, originally for a United Free Church congregation, to designs by architect William Carruthers Laidlaw. Its foundation stone was laid in 1908 and it opening ceremony was held on the 8th May 1909

The church became Church of Scotland in 1929, following the union of the two denominations. To avoid confusion with the nearby historic Parish Church dedicated to St Serf (now in the care of Historic Environment Scotland), the congregtion voted to change its name to St Paul’s Church of Scotland. They did this to honour an early Christian missionary, who had taken the name of the saint as his own, and who was said to have baptised individuals in a nearby deep pool in the Dunning Burn that was still known as “St Paul’s Pool” or “the Pauly”.

The church features an open timber roof, made of Oregon pin with laminated ribs springing from carved and moulded stone corbels, and its chancel is adorned with simple, well-crafted furnishings. It possesses some fine stained glass, including the west window of the ‘Four Evangelists’ by James Ballantine and Son and a more recent window by Scottish artist Martin Farrelly, installed to mark the Millennium.

The church was reordered in 2008 by resituating the organ and choir and removing some of the fixed pews, creating a more open and flexible sanctuary. In January 2024, the congregations of Aberuthven and Dunning were formally linked as a single parish within the Church of Scotland.

Services

Sundays at 11.00am

Opening Arrangements

Open by arrangement