Lancaster

/ 04/10/2026

So we are into the school summer holidays and another trip north with the family to the Lake District. This was the first year that my eldest has driven up there, which shows how long we’ve been coming as he was 1 on his first visit!! I feel old!! The journey is never too easy, and myself and my eldest were driving in tandem for the route (mainly because dad wanted to make sure he got there safe). We’ve done a number of different walks, visits and stop offs on the way up previously, the plan up until a week before leaving was to head for the Kirkstone pass, park and walk up Red Screes and Middle Dodd, however the greedy owner of the connected self catering holiday lets, next to the pub, has slapped parking charges on the car park. Being extremely against this sort of money making scheme I was not having that, so we decided to visit Lancaster instead and its cathedral, castle and town. It was a good choice. We parked up around midday and headed to the Catholic cathedral first. A wedding was happening so we headed into the main town and up to the castle, eating our sandwiches in the courtyard, before heading to the Priory church of St Mary which is next door. We’d had a good look around the priory church before we walked back to the centre and back out to the cathedral, happy with our visit we walked the short distance to the cars and drove to Grasmere for our week in the Lakes. We really enjoyed Lancaster and I’m sure we’ve missed a few bits, but still for an afternoon it was a great choice

The outside of the Catholic cathedral, a wedding was ongoing so decided to come back later
Lancaster town hall, the inside is supposed to be lovely as well
Queen Victoria monument in the park opposite the town hall
Castle gates
It was free to get into the courtyard inside, so we took advantage to have a look around
A fantastic courtyard so we had our sandwiches here
Lancaster castle, you can pay for a tour if you wish to, but we were happy with a walk around and sit in the courtyard
Lancaster priory church, St Mary’s. Its Grade 1 listed. A roman fort was placed here 2000 years ago with a possible church here from 200 AD, a Saxon church from around 600 AD and the Benedictine priory around 1094. Obviously with the Henry 8th changes it moved to an Anglican church in 1558
Inside St Mary’s
The altar space
The stunning choirstalls and said to be from 1340, made from oak and the third oldest in the country
Royal Lancaster regiment chapel which opened in 1903
And from above the priory church of St Mary’s
A view to the Catholic church as we drop down from Castle Hill back to the town
Inside the Catholic church of St Peter which was elevated to a cathedral in 1924
St Peter and his toe is rubbed like the one in Rome
The altar and screen
Behind the screen is the stunning main altar
And the outside, a fine visit to Lancaster and we all really enjoyed wandering around this city. Now on to the Lakes

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15 thoughts on “Lancaster”

  8. We were up in Lancaster last weekend for the music festival which is always great fun. We saw a choir in the castle courtyard and some of our party saw a heavy metal band backed by an orchestra in the Priory! Apparently it was a bit odd!

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