Our opening times are:
Monday to Friday – 10am to 5.30pm
Saturday – 10am to 4pm
Sunday – 8.00am to 4pm

Click here to view the Music Scheme for this week.

Click here to view the Music Scheme for next week.

More information about attending services in the Cathedral can be found HERE

Sunday 23rd January – The Third Sunday after Epiphany

• All are welcome to join us for our morning services this Sunday, and you can find the Orders of Service below. You can also watch our 11.15am Choral Eucharist and 4.00pm Choral Evensong live on this page.

8.00am Service Sheet & Weekly Notes

9.00am Service Sheet & Weekly Notes

11.15am Service Sheet & Weekly Notes

4.00pm Choral Evensong Order of Service

Wednesday 19th January

• Thought for the Week is based on one of the day’s lectionary readings.  For the Bible online, click the following link – http://bible.oremus.org/ – then choose your version (we use NRSV in church). Copy and paste the reference into the search box (Philippians 2. 5-11) and the passage will be displayed.

 

Sunday 16th January – The Second Sunday after Epiphany

• All are welcome to join us for our morning services this Sunday, and you can find the Orders of Service below. You can also watch our 11.15am Choral Eucharist and 4.00pm Choral Evensong live on this page.

8.00am Service Sheet & Weekly Notes

9.00am Service Sheet & Weekly Notes

11.15am Service Sheet & Weekly Notes

4.00pm Choral Evensong Order of Service

You can watch all Cathedral videos on YouTube, by clicking here

FRIENDS OF LLANDAFF CATHEDRAL – OPEN DAYS 2021

The following programme will operate at the cathedral on Saturday 18th September –

12.30pm Recital, demonstration and tour of the organ

1.30pm Conversations with the Archivist

2.00pm Guided tour of the cathedral

Watch historian Arthur Impey’s talk on the Bishop Marshall Panel which returned to the Cathedral in 2021 after 6 years of restoration and the Cathedral’s other medieval works of art:

We are unable to provide a tour of the Bell Tower in person this year due to Covid restrictions but you can watch our popular tour with Pat Moore from last year’s Open Doors below:

Stephen Moore will be giving an organ demonstration and tour in the Cathedral but if you can’t make it, watch his organ demonstration from Open Doors 2020:

Our Archivist John Kenyon will be at the Cathedral for Open Doors 2021 but if you’re unable to make it catch up on his tour of the Archives from last year’s Open Doors:

Elsewhere in Llandaff:

Howells School

Take a look at the brand new virtual tour of Howell’s School by clicking here or watch the virtual tour of the Great Hall and Stone Hall below:

Cardiff Metropolitan University

Take a look inside the Cardiff School of Art and Design below and click here to see their Summer Show 2021:

One of the Cathedral’s greatest treasures has returned to Llandaff following six years away for restoration.

The Bishop Marshall Panel was painted in 1480 for the throne of Bishop John Marshall, Bishop of Llandaff from 1478 to his death in 1496. He is buried on the north side of the sanctuary and his will specified that a book of psalms should be chained there.

The panel is all that remains of the Bishop’s throne and is an important survival of late medieval painting. It portrays the Assumption of the Virgin Mary and features Bishop Marshall himself in the bottom right-hand corner.

In the rebuilding of the Cathedral in the 18th century the panel was re-used as part of the tester over the altar. The panel features an inscription from this time: “Part of Bishop Marshall’s Throne/ done in the year 1480 and set here/ in ye year 1736…”. In the post-1945 restoration, the panel was set in a wooden sedilia by the architect George Pace.

Of the four remaining medieval bishop’s thrones that exist in the UK, none have their painted coatings, making the Bishop Marshall Panel uniquely important. The panel was restored by Rachel Howells and it is now on the wall next to the Chapter House on the south side of the Cathedral.

The Cathedral Chapter are delighted to see it return home to Llandaff and are grateful for the funding received which enabled it to be restored. The Friends of Llandaff Cathedral committed £44,000 to the project and funding was also granted by The Leche Trust, The St Andrew’s Conservation Trust and The William & Jane Morris Fund of the Society of Antiquaries in London.

We are very excited to have become home to two Peregrine Falcons! The birds have attracted a lot of interest and very soon we will be installing equipment enabling us to livestream from the tower, giving us all a closer look into the lives of these fascinating birds of prey. Keep an eye on our social media pages as we prepare to launch the new webcam.

Below, Ed Drewitt, a naturalist who is working on the project, provides some information about peregrine falcons and some advice on finding them at the Cathedral!

Peregrine Falcons on Llandaff Cathedral

Llandaff Cathedral is home to one of the fastest birds in the world, the peregrine falcon. They have been here throughout 2020 and we hope that they may nest here in 2021. A nest tray has been installed in the Cathedral tower, to encourage the peregrines to nest, and to ensure that any eggs that they lay don’t roll away into the gutter.

What does a peregrine look like?

Peregrines belong to the falcon family. They are crow-size with long, pointed wings, and a sharp, hooked beak. Their wings, back, tail, and the top of their head are mainly blue-grey in colour. They have white-cream underparts with spots and fine barring. Below each eye they have a thick, dark stripe. The legs and base of the beak (known as the cere) are bright yellow. The female (or falcon) is much bigger than the male (tiercel). Young peregrines are browner on the back and head, with a streaked chest, pale yellow legs, and a blue-brown cere.

Where can you see them on the cathedral?

The peregrines are often resting on the pinnacles and gargoyles of the cathedral’s towers – particularly on the east facing pinnacles at the base of the cathedral spire. If still, they can be difficult to see. Other times they may be flying around, often circling overhead and calling. They can be quite noisy, giving out screeches and other calls.

During February and March, the breeding pair may be very visible and noisy. They can be seen circling overhead, and heard calling as part of their courtship display. Later in the year, when the young have left the nest, the whole family may be seen flying low overhead.

Eggs

Peregrines lay between one and five eggs in mid March to early April. Their nest is a small scrape on a rocky ledge or on gravel in a nest tray provided for them. The eggs are incubated mainly by the female, and during this time the male does most of the hunting.

Hatching

In late April to early May, the eggs hatch. The chicks are fed by both parents, and they stay in the nest for six weeks. Whilst they are in the nest, they make a lot of noise, and frequently flap their wings. This helps them to strengthen their wing muscles as they get ready to fly.

Leaving the nest

The chicks leave the nest after six weeks, around mid-June. They may stay in the area throughout late summer and autumn, learning how to hunt and fend for themselves. After this, they will leave and find their own nest site a year or two later. Occasionally a young bird may stay and help their parents to look after the following year’s chicks.

What do peregrines eat?

Peregrines mainly eat other birds, hunting by chasing or diving at great speeds, with their wings half folded. They can dive at speeds over 200 miles per hour, making them one of the fastest birds in the world! Sometimes peregrines hunt at night over the city, using the street lamps to help them see their prey. Once they have caught their prey, they often take it to a favoured perch on the cathedral where it is plucked and eaten. Peregrines also store food in favourite crevices on the roof known as a cache – a natural fridge! We can study the diet of the peregrines by collecting the feathers of their prey, which drift down from their plucking-posts. From these studies we know that the peregrines at Llandaff Cathedral feed on a variety of birds including feral pigeons, goldfinches, jackdaws, blackbirds – and they sometimes even catch bats.

Sometimes peregrines hunt at night over the city, using the street lamps to help them see their prey.