Ripon Cathedral

[endlessrarities]

Okay, it's cathedral time,  And it's a good one, I promise!

I used to have a top five list of favourite cathedrals.  I've decided to rip it up and throw it away.  I'll follow the same reasoning as the great horticulturalist Christopher Lloyd used for plants: my favourite cathedral is the one I'm looking at at the time!

Ripon Cathedral is compact and bijou.  But as per usual, when you scratch beneath the surface, it's a very complex building.

 Here's the east elevation:-

The main body of the cathedral is late twelfth century, but there's the remains of an earlier church to be seen to the left, beneath a fifteenth century upper storey.  Here it is in more detail:-

 

The crypt is earlier still.  It's Saxon.

There's a wide array of gargoyles adorning the twelfth century structure.  You can see them at the roofline:-
 

 

And a close-up of one on the south side of the cathedral building:-

 

And tomorrow, we'll go inside...