Lincoln Cathedral

Lincoln is only an hour or so away from Nottingham so I decided to take a trip there recently and bought a joint ticket to both the Cathedral and Lincoln Castle which was well worth the price of £18. An easy-ish walk from the railway station (there is a steep hill involved though buses are also available) some of the Cathedral was under scaffolding when I visited but that didn’t detract from the impressiveness of the building.

Work began on the cathedral in 1072 with a supporter of William the Conqueror, Bishop Remigius, placed there to establish a northern stronghold for the Norman conquerors. I arrived at the Cathedral just in time to join the first roof tour of the day (£5) which was really good with a very informative guide. One interesting thing the guide talked about was the earthquake which struck in 1185 and partially destroyed the Cathedral; the West Front pictured below is the only part that was left standing.

The roof tour, which takes around 90 minutes lets you get a great view of the cathedral inside – note the roof isn’t straight here, according to our guide no one knows quite why that is the case given how straight the rest of the roof is.

The tour also gave us the opportunity to go outside at a couple of different points to see some views of Lincoln and the castle opposite,

and to see the details of the roof and towers close up.

The cathedral also has some lovely stained glass windows, as below.

Other places to visit if you can – they’re not always open –  are the Medieval and the Wren libraries, where no photography is allowed. The Medieval Library was built in 1422 and still contains medieval books and reading desks. The Wren Library dates from 1674 and was, as you probably guessed, named after its architect Christopher Wren and really is a beautifully designed room.

You can find more photos here.