Ely Cathedral
An Anglican cathedral on the site of a 672 abbey, with a central octagon built after the Norman tower fell in 1322.
An abbey, then a cathedral
A monastery was founded here in 672 by St Etheldreda, and the cathedral that grew from it stands in the city of Ely in Cambridgeshire. Parts of the present church date from 1083, and cathedral status followed in 1109. Its dedication, to St Etheldreda and St Peter, lasted until the Reformation, when it was refounded under the title "Cathedral Church of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Ely". Peterborough Abbey, which owned the Barnack quarries, was paid 8,000 eels a year for the stone. Locals call the building "the ship of the Fens" for the way it rises above the flat land around it.
The Octagon and the Lady Chapel
On the night of 12 to 13 February 1322 the Norman central tower collapsed. Instead of a new tower on the old square plan, the crossing was opened out into an octagon, a project overseen by Alan of Walsingham. The lantern above it is timber, with joinery by the royal master carpenter William Hurley and a central boss of Christ in Majesty cut from a single piece of oak. The Octagon lantern is 52 metres high and the west tower reaches 66 metres. A free-standing Lady Chapel was begun in 1321 and carried a cycle of 93 relief sculptures of the life of the Virgin Mary. The royal commissioners took the monastery in 1539, and the sculptures and shrines were defaced or destroyed in the years that followed. The Stained Glass Museum occupies the south triforium. J. M. W. Turner painted a watercolour of the cathedral in about 1796.
Visiting
The cathedral's own site gave visitor entry as 09:30 to 16:30 from Monday to Saturday and 12:00 to 15:00 on Sunday when checked on 12 October 2026, with a charge. It also lists bookable tours of the Octagon Tower and a West Tower climb of 288 steps. Services are held every day, usually at 17:30 on Monday to Saturday and at 10:30 and 16:00 on Sunday. Check the cathedral's site for closures before travelling.