Aberdeen Cathedral

Our Cathedral was opened in December 1860 as the principal Catholic Church in the west end of the city, replacing St Peters church in the Castlegate, when there were about 1,000 Catholics out of a population of 74,000 and the number of Catholics was increasing. It became the Cathedral when the post reformation diocese was set up in 1878. The architect of the church was Alexander Ellis, a local man. The spire, added with the bells in 1876-1877, was designed by RG Wilson. The church was rededicated in I960, the centenary of its opening, after the interior had been extensively simplified, anticipating by some years the liturgical reforms of the Second Vatican.