England
Ely
A lantern tower floating above the fens like a ship's mast on flat farmland.
The cathedral rises from the flat black fenland like a ship at anchor, its octagonal lantern tower visible for miles across a landscape with nothing tall enough to compete. Ely in Cambridgeshire is a small city built around one of the most ambitious pieces of medieval engineering in England.
Ely Cathedral's Octagon Tower, constructed in 1334 after the original Norman tower collapsed, replaced stone with a timber-and-lead lantern weighing 400 tonnes, suspended 43 metres above the nave. The engineering — eight oak timbers each 19 metres long, hauled from Bedfordshire — was not matched in ambition until the Industrial Revolution. The cathedral has served as a place of worship since 673 AD, when Etheldreda founded a monastery on the site. Oliver Cromwell lived in Ely from 1636 to 1646 in a house now open as a museum on St Mary's Street. The surrounding fenland, drained from the 17th century by Dutch engineers under Cornelius Vermuyden, created some of the richest agricultural land in England. Wicken Fen, the National Trust's oldest nature reserve, preserves undrained fenland three miles south of the city.
Couple
The cathedral's octagon tower, seen from inside, is one of England's most extraordinary ceilings. Stand beneath it together and the engineering becomes emotional — 700 years of ambition suspended above your heads.
Solo
Approach Ely on foot from Wicken Fen and the cathedral resolves slowly from the horizon. The walk across the fen, the arriving spire, the octagon revealed — Ely rewards the pilgrimage approach.
- The cathedral's octagonal lantern tower is a medieval engineering miracle — an eight-sided wooden dome spanning 72 feet, held up by faith and oak.
- Oliver Cromwell's house stands opposite the cathedral — the man who dissolved the monasteries lived in the shadow of one.
- The Fens stretch flat to every horizon from the cathedral tower — on clear days you can see Lincoln Cathedral 60 miles away.
- The riverside path from Ely into the Fens passes through reed beds where bitterns boom in spring — a sound that carries across still water.
Smoked eel from the rivers — Ely means 'eel island' and they still serve it locally.
Afternoon tea at the Almonry, a medieval building beside the cathedral.
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