Milton Keynes Tree Cathedral

Whilst the weather was warmer Top Ender, Big Boy, Daddy and I made the most of it with several trips in and around Milton Keynes. Somewhere that we were pleased to be able to visit for the first time was the Milton Keynes Tree Cathedral and whilst in early Spring it wasn't as vibrant as I am sure it will be later in the year, we had a great time wandering round the different parts and trying to identify the different parts of the Cathedral without using the picture we had taken of the map. The tree cathedral was created by a landscape architect called Neil Higson in 1986 and he cleverly chose different trees to represent the different sections of the Cathedral. There are hornbeam and tall-growing lime for the Nave, evergreens to represent the central tower and spires and flowering cherry and apple as a focus in the chapels. I couldn't really identify all of the trees, but luckily the information posters around the Cathedral were very helpful!

Instead of stained glass windows the Cathedral has flowers to bring colour. The flowers were daffodils, as it was early Spring, and being on the ground they are supposed to represent the sun shining through the windows and leaving puddles of the light on the floor. We all thought it was very effective and we were quite impressed with the quantity of bulbs that must have been planted!

Daddy thought it was sparse and I thought it a little eerie with there not being many leaves on the trees, but the Cathedral has a very serene atmosphere even being as close to a major grid road as it is. We loved wandering around on the paths and the children loved criss crossing from side to side and pretending that they were part of a wedding party.

The favourite area of the Cathedral was the Chapter House Mound where the children posed for a picture on the steps before taking off to sprint round the mound several times and passing through the hedges at the top. Daddy and I loved hearing them laughing as they hid from us and chased each other and we took in the view of Willen Lake.

We all had a good time at the Tree Cathedral and I'm keeping an eye out for the next service being held there as I think it would be nice to attend an outdoor service.