Tours and Demonstrations

Tower Tours

Wind your way up narrow spiral staircases, climbing 332 steps in easy stages, into our ancient roof spaces to the foot of our iconic spire, 68 metres above ground level.

On your tour you will enjoy spectacular sights – an uninterrupted aerial view of the inside of the Cathedral, look up into the inside of the spire and panoramic views of Salisbury and the surrounding water meadows. Our experienced guides will tell you all about the construction of this architectural masterpiece.

Booking Details:

Adults: £16 (when pre-booked online)

Full time Student (with ID): £12 (when pre-booked online)

Child (7-16): £9 (when pre-booked online)

Tours take place several times each day Monday – Sunday and include admission to the Cathedral and Chapter House with Magna Carta on the day of your visit. Tours last approximately 1.5 – 2 hours.

Stonemasonry Works Yard Tours

Take a backstage tour with an expert guide around our Works Yard, one of only nine English Cathedral works yards in the country.

Learn how 150 million-year-old blocks of upper Jurassic Limestone weighing up to 5 tonnes are transformed and shaped to conserve and restore this remarkable building.

Visit the Drawing Office where conservation is planned and templates for replacement stones are drawn up by our masons.

Observe how 21st Century know-how and hand-carving skills that have been practiced here since the 13th Century are brought together to protect this amazing heritage building for generations to come.

Booking Details:

Adult: £17 (when pre-booked online)

Library Tours

A winding stone staircase above the Cloisters leads to our library, which was built in 1445. It contains over 10,000 historic books, with some more than 800 years old. An expert will show you a range of books specially selected to demonstrate the importance and variety of the collection. This is a fascinating glimpse into the Cathedral and its past.

Tours last approximately one hour.

Booking Details:

Adult: £20 (when pre-booked online)

Among the Parapets Tours

Got a head for heights? Fancy a trip up the scaffold at Salisbury Cathedral to see where vital restoration work is taking place? This unique, 90-minute expert–led experience will take you behind the scenes, up to where the stonemasons are working on the Cathedral’s East end, the oldest and most damaged part of the building.

Visitors will also get to see in the former glazing workshop used across the centuries by the Cathedral builders and restorers. The workshop, situated at a dizzying height behind the Moses window that overlooks the Cathedral Quire inside, is accessed by climbing over a parapet wall. This hidden workspace is now used by the Cathedral masons operating at height, and is only accessible whilst the scaffolding is in place, making this tour a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

Among the Parapets is not a tour for the faint-hearted or those afraid of heights, and you probably need to be reasonably fit to make the climb – but once up the scaffold visitors will be rewarded with a ‘mason’s eye-view’ of the beautiful East face and spectacular views of the Close and surrounding landscape.

Booking Details:

Group of 4: £300

Tours are scheduled at 14:00 on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays from April.

Free Tours and Demonstrations

Cathedral Floor Tours

Daily tours available on request (subject to availability)

We have over 250 knowledgeable volunteer guides who will welcome you and help you get the most from your visit. If there are enough guides available, you might even get your own private tour! Alternatively, you can explore at your own pace using one of our free family-friendly guide maps or our fun Cathedral trail for younger children.

 

Medieval Clock demonstration: marking the centuries

Mondays – Fridays after 11.00 Prayers; Saturdays at 10.30 in the North Nave Aisle

Make sure you join us in time to see, and hear, the world’s oldest working mechanical clock in action. Made in 1386 or earlier, it is mounted in an iron frame and has no dial! In the past the clock struck a bell to remind the priests to pray.

Today the clock still measures the day with a steady tick but can now be seen at ground level in the Cathedral rather than in the tower. It is wound up every day and has ticked over 5 billion times. Come and watch while the mechanism is unlocked allowing the clock to strike a bell as it first did over 600 years ago.

 

Stained Glass Window Tours

Mondays, 12.00, Cathedral entrance in Cloisters, no booking required

Discover the rich history of our beautiful stained glass windows. The tour sheds new light on the Cathedral’s history and its community, from the scandal of the medieval glass abandoned in a ditch during the late 1700s, to windows commemorating wars, suffrage and even a Cathedral cat. Tours last approximately one hour.

 

Vestments Demo

Please note these demos are currently unavailable

Learn about a thousand years of worship with our free Vestments talks every Thursday.

Follow the journey from Old Sarum to the current site of Salisbury Cathedral, and discover the practices and traditions that have remained. Learn about life in the vestry, where vergers prepare for worship across the centuries and view some of the beautiful vestments and artefacts on display. No booking required.

 

Meet the Masons

Tuesdays from April 5 – November 1, 10:30 – 12:30, West Cloister or South Transept, no booking required

Watch our stonemasons at work on Tuesdays from 10:30 to 12:30. See the experts who maintain and restore our Cathedral using tools and techniques that haven’t changed for hundreds of years. We welcome you to ask questions as they carve the stone before your eyes to find out more about life as a Salisbury Cathedral stonemason.