Type your search below

Your support

Scroll to explore

We could not care for this building and serve our community without you. Thank you for your support. 

Entrance to York Minster is always free for those attending all acts of worship or to pray; for carers, accompanied children aged 17 and under; and for City of York residents and York students. 

For those who wish to sightsee, we ask for your contribution to ensure we can continue to serve our community and care for and conserve the iconic medieval building of which we are custodians, nearly 1,400 years after the first church was built on this site. 

We receive no regular government funding, or church funding beyond clergy stipends. We rely on the generosity of our visitors to raise the £33,000 a day needed to ensure that we can open York Minster 365 days a year and care for its unique history and heritage, including the irreplaceable stained glass, worked stone, furnishings and collections, as well as maintaining our world-class music and outreach. 

Like everyone, York Minster is facing financial pressures connected to inflation and the increase in the price of energy and the materials and equipment we use. The change to National Insurance has pushed up the cost of keeping our doors open and we continue to support our staff as a Living Wage employer. 

At the same time, climate change is hastening the deterioration of our building: like many other heritage sites, increased heavy rainfall is damaging our stonework, requiring far more replacement of carved stone than ever before, not least in hard-to-reach areas. 

Thank you for your support. We hope you enjoy your visit.

Included with your ticket

Your visit to York Minster

Each ticket includes free tours led by our expert volunteer guides; entry to the Undercroft Museum, which tells the story of the Minster and showcases some of its most precious objects; and exhibitions throughout the building exploring the Minster’s rich and varied history. 

Up to four children aged 17 and under go free with each paying adult. Every child can borrow a free Little Explorers Backpack and fun trails suitable for all ages.

Your ticket to York Minster lasts a whole year. Return throughout the year, at no extra cost to see the building change with the seasons.

Click on the images to learn more

Everything you can discover with your ticket

Close ×

The Chapter House

A true masterpiece in stained glass and stone. The beautiful Chapter House contains some of the Minster’s finest carvings and exquisite stained glass windows. The octagonal space dates from the 1280s and its magnificent, vaulted ceiling is supported by timbers in the roof, instead of a central column, which is the earliest example of its kind to use this revolutionary engineering technique.

The Quire

Built between 1361 and the 1420s, much of the original structure of the Quire was destroyed in a fire started deliberately in 1829. This intimate space has been the centre of worship at the cathedral for many hundreds of years.

The Nave

The cathedral’s interior is dominated by its magnificent and cavernous Nave, a place of inspiration and wonder for people for centuries. Work to build the vast space started in 1291 and took around 60 years to complete. It is the widest Gothic Nave in England.

The Crypt

This sacred and holy space is one of the oldest parts of the cathedral. In the Crypt you will find the tomb of St William of York, worn smooth by the many hands that have reached out and touched the shrine searching for healing and holiness.

The Great East Window

The Lady Chapel house the Great East Window, the single largest expanse of medieval stained glass in the country. The window tells the story of the books of Genesis and Revelation and depicting the beginning and end of all things. All 311 of its panels were removed and painstakingly restored over a 12 year period.

The Undercroft Museum

The Undercroft Museum lies beneath York Minster, in the space created between 1967 and 1972 while emergency works were carried out to underpin the cathedral’s Central Tower, which was in danger of collapse. Excavations uncovered a hidden history of the site, including the remains of a Roman barracks, an Anglo-Saxon cemetery and the foundations of the Norman Minster. Today, the museum contains treasures from the cathedral's collection.

Supported by your ticket

Your contribution to York Minster

We ask our visitors to support us in caring for this building so that future generations have the same opportunity to enjoy this life-changing space. 

Your support protects an unparalleled collection of medieval stained glass and over 300,000 precious artefacts.

Your support welcomes 500,000 visitors and provides 1,500 services of worship every year.

Your support trains the next generation of craftspeople, choristers and musicians.

Your support conserves the 7 hectares of land under our care and drives us closer to net zero.

I am enormously grateful to each and every visitor who contributes to our mission at York Minster.

A church has stood in this place for 1400 years. Your support makes a real difference to the work we are able to do and ensures that this remarkable cathedral can continue to thrive for the next 1400 years.

We could not do this work without you. Thank you.

– The Very Reverend Dominic Barrington, Dean of York

Maintaining a fragile masterpiece

With your support, we are able to support and sustain this magnificent building whose foundations date back to the Roman period.

You allow us to maintain the heritage crafts needed to keep York Minster alive and continue a centuries-long tradition of apprenticeships here at the Minster.

You allow us to pioneer sustainability across the buildings under our care, helping us to reduce our carbon footprint and better care for God's creation 

Explore our conservation and restoration work

Revealing medieval stained glass

16 Jan, 2025

Caring for the Chapter House doors

31 Jul, 2024

Dismantling the Grand Organ

22 Oct, 2018

Stoneyard Apprentice James Digger

15 Aug, 2018

Restoring an international work of art

02 Apr, 2018

Stay up to date with York Minster

  • Event alerts
  • Seasonal services
  • Behind the scenes features
  • Latest Minster-inspired gifts