St Magnus Cathedral

I’ve been meaning to do this for two years now, but much like the CN Tower or Niagara Falls, once you live in a place, you never think to sign up for an actual tour through a local attraction. I’ve wandered through the cathedral many times, and often attend Sunday services there, but everyone keeps going on about the Upper Level Tours, and yesterday I finally booked a tour.

We were told to arrive a couple of minutes early, so they could explain what we were about to do. It was quite the explanation. Because we were climbing up 900-year old stone staircases, and squeezing through incredibly narrow passageways, and going out on tiny balconies, there were a lot of questions about heart conditions, and respiratory issues, and vertigo, and bad knees, and so on. They even passed around photographs of someone posing in the hallways, or stepping on the stairs, to make sure we clearly understood what we were getting into. When we signed our lives away and paid our £10, up we went.

It was spectacular. We saw the bells that ring on the hour, and play just before Sunday service – they were new bells, cast in 1528. The old bell was still tucked away in a corner. The ‘old’ bell. Riiiight. We saw the stained glass windows that had nowhere to go – someone miscalculated, and accidentally made too many 5′ tall windows of saints, as one does. (Somedays I miscalculate a recipe and buy too many carrots. Much the same thing.) These windows are just propped against a wall in the rafters – a clever person put lightbulbs behind them, so at least those people on the tours get to see them at their best. We saw the chair the bellringer sits in on Sunday mornings as he plays the three bells at start of service. I was a tad freaked out about that – I once read a book about a man who was killed by sitting in a bell tower as the peal rang out – but this bellringer had a nice wee set-up, with a music stand, a metronome, and a chair bolted to the floor. Hunh.

And from out on the balcony I saw the islands of Orkney to the north, my house to the east, and a glimpse of Scotland to the south (It was slightly overcast, so I might just have imagined that last bit).

What mankind has accomplished over the years, in the name of the glory of God. Amazing.