York Minster

February 23rd, 2026

After a nice breakfast at our hotel, the Churchill Inn, we checked out.  After placing our luggage in the car, we wandered down to the old part of town on a breezy, but mainly sunny morning, a big improvement for the stormy weather of the previous evening.

 

Sitting down for breakfast at the Churchill Inn.

Winston had his eye on us as we ate.

Trying my best Churchill impression.

As we approached York Minster, the scene of our dousing by Mother Nature last night while on our haunted walking tour, a big gust of wind blasted us and we couldn’t help but think that this place didn’t really like us!  But we entered the grandiose building nonetheless...and it was impressive.

The first record of a church on the site dates to 627, but the main construction of the building occurred from 1220 to 1472…yup, 252 years to construct it!  That’s mind blowing.

Inside the cathedral.

Pointing out the "bosses", which are the carved, ornamental projections found at the intersections of the ceiling vaulting ribs.  My aunt told us about them before we started the trip. 

The bosses close up.

Strangely you purchase your tickets once you’re in the cathedral and had a good view of it already.  I balked at the 20 pound ticket price but my aunt had previously mentioned that costs about £33,000 a day in maintenance!  I decided to pay another 6 pounds each for tickets to climb up the tower for a panoramic view of the city and neighbouring countryside.

The nave of the cathedral.

Naomi panning around the cathedral as a priest gives a welcoming message from the pulpit.

The north transept.

An astronomical clock which was part of a WWII memorial to fallen soldiers.

On the north side there's a round section off of the north transept called the Chapter House, which had beautiful stained glass windows.

The ceiling of the Chapter House was something else too.

While waiting for our tower tour time, we couldn't help ourselves...

Starting to walk up the 270 steps up to the top of the central tower which is 72 meters tall.

About halfway up, we transitioned from one of the side towers to the central one to climb to the highest point.

I give the flying buttresses a big thumbs up!

The rest of the tour group making their way towards the central tower (Naomi and I were the first two in the group).

The view of from the top.

Oh boy, it was windy...and chilly.

We could see for miles...it could have been a little clearer in the far distance, but we still felt lucky.

You can't see much in this photo, but The Shambles that we visited yesterday are above the row of white buildings with the peaked rooves near the bottom right of the picture.

Back down from the tower, I was impressed by the pipes of the organ.

A mosaic of some bishop or cardinal in the subterranean level.

Back up on the main level, looking to the north wall from the south transept.

We noticed some of the £33,000/day running costs in use.  See the two guys in blue at the base of the cathedral?  Well they are belaying a couple of guys up the wall doing some maintenance.

There they are...

After about an hour in York Minster, it was time for us to get on the road to head to Edinburgh.  I have to admit that my visit to Sagrada Familia in Barcelona a few weeks ago left more of an impression on me since it is just so different to the numerous Gothic cathedrals that I’ve been lucky to visit…but I’m still glad to have seen York Minster.