It’s not an easy one. Many of us could probably identify at least one of the largest, but it’s not so easy to name the smallest cathedrals in the UK.
In this article I seek them out. Two of them are right on my doorstep where I grew up in South Wales, and some of the others needed a little more seeking out.
Some of these small cathedrals have always been Cathedrals, and always small. Others had their status raised from parish church to Cathedral in the 20th century. Among these, you’ll find some of the more modest cathedrals in the UK, but also some rarely-visited and unknown treasures.
In this guide, I’ll describe ten of the smallest British cathedrals, and explain the nitty-gritty of when and how to visit them. Hopefully you’ll get to visit some of them too. And you never know, some of them might be right on your doorstep.
St Asaph Cathedral
We begin with officially the smallest cathedral in the UK, St Asaph Cathedral in North East Wales. St Asaph – Llanelwy in Welsh – is also o e of the smallest cities in. Wales and the UK, with a population of less than 4,000.
There has been a church at St Asaph from the 6th century AD. St Kentigern (also known as St Mungo, patron saint of Glasgow) is believed to have founded a church on or near the site of the Cathedral – the parish church of the city St Asaph, just down the hill from the Cathedral, is dedicated to him. St Asaph (possibly known as Asa) followed some time later.
The present Gothic church dates from the 15th century, a second rebuild following destruction by Owain Glyndwr (the forces of English King Edward I also left it in ruins in the 1280s). It’s best-known as being the Cathedral of Bishop William Morgan, who translated the Bible into Welsh (from Hebrew and Greek) in 1588. This was an immense step forward for the language, Welsh culture and worshippers across the country who could finally hear the messages from the Bible in their own tongue rather than Latin or English.
St Asaph Cathedral was restored again in the 19th century, under the direction of Sir George Gilbert Scott. It has some of the finest choir stalls in Wales – complete with canopies above and misericords below. You can also see William Morgan’s original Welsh Bible. He is commemorated by the Translators Memorial on the north side of the churchyard.
Nearby: Formidable Rhuddlan Castle – one of the finest castles in North Wales – is less than three miles away, as is the nearby landmark Marble Church at Bodelwyddan, just off the A55 North Wales Expressway. Llandudno and Conwy are only half an hour’s drive to the west along the A55.
See Also: 30 Of the Best Churches In Wales To Visit
Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford
Christ Church Cathedral is believed to be the smallest cathedral in England, but it’s one of the most fascinating. A church has stood on the site since the 8th century AD, when a convent was founded by St Frideswide, patron saint of Oxford and the University of Oxford. After the original church was lost to fire, a new church was built from 1122 onwards, and much of this survives.
Uniquely the Cathedral serves as the mother church of the Diocese of Oxford and also as the Chapel of Christ Church College. At one point Cardinal Wolsey was planning to have the church demolished so that another college could be built on the land it occupied, but he fell out of favour with the often-capricious King Henry VIII. Henry allowed the church to remain, and refounded the college in 1532. The Cathedral was largely preserved, although the shrine of St Frideswide was severely damaged decades later. Prior to this Catherine of Aragon, first wife of Henry VIII, prayed at the shrine in the hope of conceiving a son.
The cathedral is a mixture of Norman Romanesque and English Perpendicular Gothic. The most beautiful part of Christ Church, for me, is around the high altar, with the Norman arches and rose window and the glorious stone vault – likely from the early 15th century, a very early example of Perpendicular vaulting – above.
There are many other points of interest. The 14th-century window in the Lucy Chapel has one of very few depictions of English martyr St Thomas Becket to survive the Reformation under Henry VIII. And a plaque on the floor commemorates the ordination of John and Charles Wesley in Christ Church – they were members of the Church of England before leaving to lead the Methodist Revival.
There is also a stained-glass window by Sir Edward Burne-Jones in the St Frideswide Chapel. For more works by this renowned Pre-Raphaelite artist, see the following section.
Tours: This Christ Church and Oxford University tour includes the Cathedral, Christ Church College and several other colleges, as well as the Bodleian Library and Bridge of Sighs
Birmingham Cathedral
Birmingham dwarfs the surrounding cities of Hereford, Worcester, Coventry and Lichfield in terms of population, but somehow it has the smallest Cathedral of the lot.
It was the parish church of St Philip for almost 200 years, having been built around 1710 to a Baroque design by Thomas Archer. He had visited Rome some years later, and was very impressed by contemporary Baroque architecture there. As Birmingham grew, especially during the 19th century, it needed its own Cathedral, so St Philip’s was raised to Cathedral status in 1905.
The Cathedral is surrounded by a small park, its tower one of the most prominent landmarks in Birmingham. The interior is more striking, with marbled columns and several superb windows by Birmingham-born Pre-Raphaelite artist Sir Edward Burne-Jones. Three of them are in the chancel (east end) of the church – the other is the west window.
Getting there: A 5-minute walk from Birmingham New Street station to Colmore Row. Otherwise the West Midlands Metro tram stops at Corporation Street and Grand Central are closer still.
Tours: This guided walking tour makes a great introduction to Birmingham’s sights, and begins outside the Cathedral.
Carlisle Cathedral
Along with Oxford Cathedral, Carlisle is for me the most impressive of the smallest cathedrals in the UK. Until 1646, when the Scottish Presbyterian Army took it upon themselves to demolish much of the nave, it was considerably larger. The stone taken from the nave was used to improve defences at Carlisle Castle. Like Beauvais Cathedral north of Paris, it feels truncated, almost patched-up. But it doesn’t detract from the beauty within.
Sometimes wondrous things are born out of disasters, and this is true of Carlisle Cathedral. A century’s work was largely destroyed in a 1292 fire, meaning it all had to be redone. By the time it was close to completion, the more elaborate Decorated style of Gothic was prevalent. And this resulted in Carlisle’s greatest treasure, its extraordinarily ornate stained-glass east window. It’s the largest window from the period in England, surpassing even those at Exeter Cathedral in size if not intricacy. Much of the glass is from the Victorian period, though considerable original glass remains.
The wooden barrel-vaulted ceiling – painted blue with bosses and golden stars – is also from the 14th century. It’s unusual to find a wooden ceiling from this period – it may have been a simple question of a stone vault being beyond the builders’ means.
And don’t miss the choir stalls from the 15th century, with some superb carvings of saints and various creatures. The seats were built to keep the monks awake, but from the evidence of burn marks on some of the carving some may have been prone to nodding off during excessively long sermons. I know – I’ve been there!
Nearby: The western section of Hadrian’s Wall – the northern boundary of the Roman Empire – and the wonderful World Heritage-listed Lake District National Park are both very close by.
Where To Stay – The Halston Carlisle – highly rated apartment hotel in the city centre, a few minutes’ walk from the Cathedral and Castle
Dornoch Cathedral
Technically speaking, Scotland no longer has any cathedrals. The definition of a cathedral is usually a church which possesses a cathedra, the seat of a bishop. However, since the Reformation – slight complication here – the Church of Scotland has not had any bishops.
However, churches which were the seats of bishops before the reformation are still often called cathedrals. Such is the case with Dornoch Cathedral, in Sutherland. It once served the Diocese of Caithness, the far northern part of the Scottish mainland.
Dornoch Cathedral is said to have been founded by Gilbert de Moravia, later St Gilbert of Dornoch and its first bishop in the 13th century. It’s highly unlikely that he hailed from the Czech region of Moravia, and probably that he came from the much closer Moray.
Gilbert’s 13th-century church survived until 1570, when it was badly damaged during a fire during a clan feud between the Mackays of Strathnaver and the local Murrays of Dornoch. It was partially restored in the early 17th century, and the restoration was finally completed in the 1830s.
There is also some fine stained-glass inside – look out for a window depicting St Gilbert, and three windows on the north side of the church which were donated in memory of industrialist and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie, who regularly stayed at a holiday home nearby in Skibo.
Getting there: Dornoch is 44 miles (71 km) north of Inverness, and just off the main A9 road. The X99 bus runs once a day from Inverness to Dornoch, otherwise the Ember service takes 1 hour 30 minutes.
The closest train station is Tain, 9 miles to the south across the Strait of Dornoch. A few buses a day run from there to Dornoch.
Where To Stay: Dornoch Castle Hotel – fantastic atmospheric hotel in a 500-year-old Castle
Brecon Cathedral
Brecon Cathedral started out as the Augustinian Priory Church of St John, and became the parish church of the country town of Brecon after Henry VIII’s Dissolution of the Monasteries. It then became the Cathedral of the Diocese of Swansea and Brecon in 1923, serving a flock from the Gower Peninsula in the west to the English border in. the east.
It was founded in 1093 on the initiative of Bernard de Neufmarche, a Norman knight who instructed Roger, a monk from Battle Abbey, to build a priory at the site which was affiliated to Battle. Originally built in the Norman (Romanesque) style, it was reconstructed in the Early English style in the 13th century – the narrow lancet windows at the east end of the church are a classic characteristic of this period.
The Priory was once home to a renowned golden rood screen, but this was destroyed, like a great many others, during the Dissolution in the late 1530s.
The two main features are to seek out are the superb carved Norman font, which is believed to date from the 12th century, and the South Wales Borderers Chapel in the north aisle. Brecon is the regiment’s home town, and one of the flags on display is the regiment’s flag from the famous Battle of Rorke’s Drift from the Zulu war.
Nearby: Brecon (Aberhonddu in Welsh) is on the northern edge of the Bannau Brycheiniog National Park, and only a few miles from the highest of the Brecon Beacons mountains, Pen y Fan.
And less than twenty miles to the east, this Churches of the Black Mountains Itinerary includes the stunning remote church at Partrishow and the serene ruins of Llanthony Priory.
Tours: This Castles, Mountains and Steam Train Tour From Cardiff includes visits to Brecon and the Cathedral, the Brecon Mountain Railway, Caerphilly Castle and Cyfarthfa Castle and Park in Merthyr Tydfil.
See Also: 25 Best Things to Do In The Brecon Beacons
St Woolos Cathedral, Newport, Wales
Like Brecon, St Woolos was raised from parish church to Cathedral status in 1949. It’s possibly the least-known of the Cathedrals in Wales, and as Newport isn’t really on the tourist trail in Wales, St Woolos tends to get overlooked – and many aren’t aware of it at all.
Woolos is the Anglicised version of Gwynllyw, a local Welsh king and saint from the 5th century AD. According to tradition he converted to Christianity after a dream in which he was told to follow a white ox to a hilltop site (the present Stow Hill, overlooking Newport city centre and the River Usk) and build a church. The church – likely wooden – was built on the site of the present St Mary’s Chapel, at the west end of the Cathedral. Gwynllyw married St Gwladys, another prominent Celtic Welsh saint, and they were parents of St Cadoc, whose fame surpassed them both.
The church was rebuilt in the 12th century in the Romanesque style, and a substantial part of it remains. The nave arches retain their Norman round shape, but the Cathedral’s great treasure is the ornate west portal, leading from St Mary’s Chapel to the nave.
The chancel (east end) of the Cathedral was rebuilt in the early 1960s with the intention of creating something more fitting for a Cathedral, more striking than the restored Victorian chancel which preceded it. The result is an unusual grey marble-style mural with a stained-glass window depicting a cross set into it. It’s the work of John Piper, one of the major ecclesiastical artists of the time, and the window is also the work of his collaborator Patrick Reyntiens. They are best-known for their outstanding Baptistery window in the new Coventry Cathedral, which was consecrated in 1962.
Things To See Nearby: Newport isn’t the most attractive place in Wales, but has some wonderful sights including the 1906 Transporter Bridge over the River Usk, the splendid 16th-century Tredegar House and the Amphitheatre and Roman Baths in Caerleon, one of the finest unheralded Roman monuments in Europe. And the Wye Valley, including the outstanding Chepstow Castle and Tintern Abbey, is only half an hour’s drive (or train) away.
Where To Stay – The Priory Hotel, Caerleon – historic hotel that was once part of a medieval Cistercian monastery, in the village with some of the best Roman sites in Wales
Derby Cathedral
Derby Cathedral is not what I expected. I knew that it was one of the ‘promoted’ parish churches elevated to cathedral status (in 1927), but hadn’t anticipated an interior that bears the influences of Andrea Palladio and Sir. Christopher Wren.
The church was originally founded in the 10th century, by King Edmund of Wessex, but this Saxon church was eventually rebuilt in the 14th century. The English Perpendicular tower, completed in 1532 and 212 feet high, is one of the finest in the country. However, by 1700 the body of the church had decayed to the extent that it needed to be rebuilt. Enter Scottish architect James Gibbs, who was also responsible for St Martin in the Fields on Trafalgar Square, one of the finest churches in London, and later the iconic Radcliffe Camera building in Oxford.
The light, simple early Neoclassical interior is reminiscent of some of Wren’s London churches, built after the Great Fire of 1666. However, some older elements have survived, including the tomb of Bess of Hardwick, one of the wealthiest and most prominent women in Elizabethan England. And don’t miss the 18th-century wrought-iron rood screen, dividing the nave from the chancel, by Robert Bakewell.
Nearby: The Peak District, Britain’s first National Park, is just north of Derby. And if you’re curious to visit more churches in the region, you won’t do better than Southwell Minster, 25 miles northeast beyond Nottingham.
Where To Stay – Holiday Inn Derby Riverlights – the ideal central location for exploring Derby and around
Chelmsford Cathedral
Chelmsford’s Cathedral is another former parish church raised to cathedral status in the early 20th century. By this time new dioceses were needed to reflect the huge growth in population, and with the nearest old cathedrals in London, Ely and Norwich, the diocese of Chelmsford was created, along with that of Bury St Edmunds.
The present church was built on the site of an earlier one, its Perpendicular windows suggesting late 15th or possibly early 16th centuries. The nave was rebuilt after 1800 in the same style, with a new floral-patterned plaster ceiling.
Nearby: Ingatestone Hall is a stunning Tudor house and estate a few miles southeast of Chelmsford. If you’re driving, we strongly recommend the beautiful town of Thaxted 20 miles northwest of Chelmsford – Faye rates it among the most beautiful small towns in England.
Smallest Cathedrals In The UK – Final Thoughts
I hope you’ve enjoyed this article, and that it has opened your eyes to some new places to seek out on your travels.
I’ve written extensively on churches in the UK and Europe, and here is a selection of articles which will hopefully give you further inspiration:
Best churches in Wales to visit,
Churches In The Black Mountains Itinerary
32 Most Beautiful Churches in Europe
25 Most Beautiful Churches In London
Visiting Westminster Abbey – London’s great royal church
10 Fascinating Gower Churches To Visit – ancient churches of the Gower Peninsula in Wales
How To Visit St Govan’s Chapel – tiny, extraordinary church at the foot of a cliff in South Pembrokeshire, Wales
Visiting Chester Cathedral – one of the treasures of northwest England
Basilica of St Denis Paris – the world’s first Gothic church
La Sainte-Chapelle Paris – stained-glass ‘walls’ in one of the high points of French Gothic
14 Most Beautiful Churches in Venice
9 Most Beautiful Churches in Florence
15 Most Beautiful Churches in Santorini
Frauenkirche Dresden – the great Baroque church rebuilt from the rubble
Visiting Naumburg Cathedral – home to ‘the most beautiful woman of the Middle Ages’
Visiting Nikolaikirche Leipzig – the church that helped start the 1989 Revolution that brought down the Berlin Wall
22 Most Beautiful Churches in Prague
Kutná Hora Bone Church – the skeleton art of the Sedlec Ossuary
The Cathedral of St Barbara Kutna Hora – one of the Gothic glories of Central Europe
15 Most Beautiful Churches in Vienna
6 Best Churches In Dresden To Visit
9 Best Churches in Berlin To Visit
5 Best Churches in Nuremberg To Visit
9 Most Beautiful Churches in Budapest
Visiting Agios Titos Church Heraklion – the finest church in the capital of Crete