Because my most profound experience of York Minster Cathedral could not be photographed — the evensong service, which we’ve attended twice — and because the grandeur of York Minster can’t be captured by my puny camera anyway … I’m sharing a detail of the chapter house ceiling.

The chapter house, used for church meetings, sits to the side of the grand nave. Completed in 1290, its ceiling is an engineering marvel. Somehow, the ancient timbers stay upright despite a central column.

To be in this room, or next door in the quire, where evensong takes place, is to be uplifted, inspired, taken to another place altogether. When the last notes faded from the organ recessional tonight, I could barely make myself leave.