Carlisle Cathedral

After Chatsworth we drove on a couple more hours, skirting the Peaks District, over-nighting at a lay by at Chunal Hill. From there we drove on the next morning, now skirting the Lake District--too crowded this time of year, even the northern bit that we saw in 2009--and headed for Carlisle, the last of our north-bound English destinations. The cathedral there is attractive, despite being more chopped-up than most. One enters the south transept, looks admiringly at the choir, ambulates around the ambulatory, takes in the elevation, the great east window, the organ...wait a second, aren't these things a bit askew? And then, back at the crossing...wait a second, where is the nave?

Squared-off east facade, nice window

South-side chancel

Nicely-carved choir

Elevation, two aisles, small gallery, small clerestory, painted
barrel-vault wooden roof

Nice to look at

East window...altar a little off center?

Organ..way off center? And not just the organ, the arches too...

Artsy shot of lancet windows

Back in the crossing, one of the older bits, with Romanesque arches and the
zig-zag stone work that makes you think the builders maybe had been to the
Holy Land or at least to Moorish country

Ditto; note the huge piers

The usual bronze model helps: it started out as an abbey church, 11th century,
then Carlisle became a cathedral city, 12th century, and it became a cathedral,
and then the Reformation came along, and later the Dissolution, and then
Cromwell and the Civil War...oddly, the Parliamentarians amputated the nave--
the peoples' part of the church--and left the priests' part intact; oh well

Fortunately they left the feline gargoyles intact

South-west view, showing the sawed-off nave; the red stone throughout--and
throughout Carlisle--is strikingly beautiful