Lincoln Cathedral Roof Tour

A trip to LINCOLN CATHEDRAL for a roof top tour!

I often feel like a bit of a fake tourist when we go to local things like. We should have made up some exciting back story when the tour guide asked where we were from. Our response of a mile down the road got an eager smile. Yep, we are locals checking out a local tourist attraction as we hadn’t done one in a decade! Rob and I have previously done a roof tour of the glorious Lincoln Cathedral but not for a long time, and actually I could remember the views but after that, I hadn’t retained a lot of the information so it was much nicer heading up again with a want to re-see and listen to the tour as a “grown-up”.

LINCOLN CATHEDRAL offers floor and rooftop tours of the Cathedral itself daily. The floor tours run more often than the rooftop ones but they are available twice a day Monday to Saturday. As a local, I would suggest they are just as important viewing as for a tourist. It is a great tour and really nice to get up on the roof of building I see every single day. A lot of our life happens around the Cathedral quarter; Rob works up there and my family have their flower shop there so for us we spend a lot of time in this area of Lincoln. Even if you are local and not near it, most would probably be able to see it. Apparently it can be seen up to 42 miles away in some directions and that is all because of how it is situated. The CATHEDRAL sits prominently on a hill because of the way the River Witham runs through the city and as Lincolnshire is one of the flattest counties in this country you just get this huge panoramic flat view for miles and miles.

Heading up through the stone passageways up the spiral steps you first stop is the Bell Ringer Chapel which takes you away from the main part of the CATHEDRAL itself. Then it is spiralling staircases all the way up. Stopping at different views to see the Cathedral inside from a higher point you end up on the roof walking alongside the woodwork until you make it outside. There are outside views from the south and west fronts, and then you can extend the tour and go to the east front.

The west front is kind of the front of the CATHEDRAL to tourists; it is where the main doors are so you get a great view looking onto the Castle and Cathedral quarter. All the cobbled streets are visible and wider you can see the university and out to the green fields. There isn’t much point talking about the history we learned as you want to be there to see the examples of the changing building through the centuries. The different styles between architecture and the little signs that the building has been on a long journey of completion.

The tour takes you through the rafters and what can be seen is very much the simplicity of a church roof, but on a bigger and more grander scale. Much bigger in fact, almost to the point where you question how it was even possible that humans were able to build such a structure.

The CATHEDRAL itself is a magnificent building, with beautiful stained glass windows and clever visual architecture but on the roof there is a different kind of beauty, one that is hidden through dark walkways and it actually makes the Cathedral seem even more monumental.

With the ability to climb and take views from the east, south and west of the Cathedral, the only bit that is missed {but can be seen on Saturday tours} is going up the central tower for a more 360 view. I think this is something that I would like to do just to say that you had been at the very top of LINCOLN CATHEDRAL, and of course as a Lincoln dweller, I like any opportunity to be proper Lincoln!