Glasgow Cathedral
— — a medieval church the Reformation forgot to pull down.
Not only on a wall.
“A complete medieval cathedral at the head of High Street, kept whole through the Reformation by the city's own merchants when other Scottish cathedrals were stripped. St Mungo is buried in the lower church, where the floor follows the slope of the original hillside. Light through the post-war stained glass falls long across the stone in late afternoon. Entry is free, and most visitors come out quieter than they went in. from the studio
Glasgow Cathedral, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
The place, in three passes.
Glasgow Cathedral stands at the east end of Cathedral Square, at the top of High Street, in the medieval core of Glasgow, Scotland. The present building dates mostly to the 13th and 15th centuries, with the lower church built around the tomb of Saint Mungo, the city's 6th-century founder. It is the only Scottish mainland cathedral to have survived the 1560 Reformation substantially intact, thanks to the intervention of Glasgow's trade guilds. Historic Environment Scotland manages the fabric while the Church of Scotland congregation continues to worship there.
The fabric is local sandstone, dark with centuries of soot, with the choir and lower church showing the most refined Gothic stonework — pointed arches, ribbed vaults, and the long stair down to St Mungo's tomb. The Blackadder Aisle, added in the late 15th century, carries one of the finest vaulted ceilings in Scotland. Most of the original medieval glass was lost over time; the current windows are mid-20th-century work commissioned after the war, including Francis Spear's great west window installed in 1958.
Entry is free and the cathedral is open most days, with shorter hours on Sundays around services. The lower church and St Mungo's tomb are the heart of the visit and worth the descent. The Necropolis rises directly behind the cathedral, a Victorian cemetery laid out from 1833 with views back over the spire and the old city. Glasgow Queen Street station is about ten minutes' walk west; Provand's Lordship, the oldest house in Glasgow, sits opposite the cathedral door.