The ship of the Fens — a cathedral rising from flat infinity
Ely is England's most dramatic small city — a medieval island rising improbably from the dead-flat Cambridgeshire Fens, dominated by one of England's most extraordinary cathedrals. The 'Ship of the Fens' (so called because its Octagon Tower is visible for 30 miles across flat water) sits at the heart of a compact Cathedral Close of medieval buildings. Oliver Cromwell lived here, and the Fens cycling and walking routes make it a perfect day trip from Cambridge 25km south.
Ely was a genuine island until the 17th-century drainage of the Fens. A Saxon abbey was founded here in 673 CE by Queen Æthelthryth. Hereward the Wake made his famous last stand against William the Conqueror on the island in 1071. The Norman cathedral was begun in 1083 and the extraordinary Octagon — built after the original tower collapsed in 1322 — is one of the great engineering feats of the Middle Ages, its timber 'lantern' creating a vast octagonal space rarely matched in European Gothic.