Booking a Group Visit to
St Machar’s Cathedral
Visiting Hours
The Cathedral is open every day:
Monday to Saturday 9.30–4.30 (April to October)
10.00–4.00 (November to March).
Sundays 12.30–5pm
School and group visits can take place during these hours subject to availability. Group visits must be booked in advance via the Cathedral Office (e-mail: office@stmachar.com) to ensure that the visit does not clash with another event or a service of worship being held in the Cathedral. Your understanding and cooperation are greatly appreciated.
If you would like to visit after closing hours please contact education@stmachar.com.
Booking Visits
Email the Education Officer with your potential dates. Once a date and time is arranged, your visit will be confirmed with a Booking Confirmation Form.
At present we have funding to help with transport to the Cathedral. Please enquire when you book.
We can only have up to 40 children on site at a time. If you want to bring more than that, look at our Explore Old Aberdeen page and split the group into a morning and afternoon visit. We might be able to give you space for lunch too. Please don’t hesitate to ask us.
Tours and Activities
Self-Guided or Guided – You Have a Choice!
Self-guided: You can come when the Cathedral is open and lead your group on a self-guided tour, using leaflets provided free of charge in the Cathedral. We also have copies of our Animals in the Ceiling Quiz to solve. There is an Interactive Screen with timelines, shields up close and children’s puzzles and touch screen colouring activities to keep everyone happy.
Guided tours, Quiz and Craft – allow 1½ hours. If your class is larger than 20, we will divide it in half and rotate three activities spending about 25 minutes on each activity.
Animals on the Ceiling Quiz We have an Animal Quiz that gets the children engaged with our Heraldic Ceiling, which was conserved in 2020 and over 500 years old. We have a Level 1 and Level 2 (C of E Levels) quiz and answers for the adults to check! To help leaders there is A guide to The Heraldic Ceiling available in the Cathedral for further information.
Site Visits
Leaders are very welcome to come prior to your visit and look around during opening times. Please ask if you need further assistance with this.
Facilities
Toilets are available on site – a locked accessible toilet is in the Gatehouse by the main entrance to the Kirkyard. Key available from Education Officer and Cathedral Staff.
There is a small shop that sells items such as postcards, pencils, Family Activity book and papers written about the Cathedral.
No eating is allowed in the Cathedral. There are two small rooms in the West Gatehouse that could between them accommodate a class up to about 26 to have a snack.
Dunbar Hall (located a 5–8 min walk away on Dunbar Street) can be booked for lunch. In dry weather Seaton Park makes a great picnic venue. There is plenty of space and lots of toilets.
Safety
Our Risk Assessments are reviewed regularly and can be provided on request.
There are First Aid supplies in the Cathedral but we cannot guarantee to provide a First Aider on site.
The Cathedral is open to the public while you are there. There is a Beadle on duty to help with any enquiries. We will inform visitors not to take photographs while you are there. Please remind pupils to be respectful of others.
Graveyard safety The kirkyard has many learning opportunities. If you take pupils on a self-guided activity in the graveyard, please remind them to stay on paths and not to run or climb on any stonework.
Resources
We have resources to help complement your trip. We have developed activities in the kirkyard and a shield trail around Old Aberdeen. If you have a particular theme you would like covered, please ask.
Safeguarding
The Church of Scotland has a deep concern for the wholeness and wellbeing of each individual. In St Machar’s, we seek to provide for all an environment which is warm, welcoming, and safe.
It is everyone’s duty to prevent harm of any kind, and we work to reduce risk by ensuring that every volunteer and employee who have regular contact with children or other vulnerable groups, is vetted through the national Protection for Vulnerable Groups (PVG) process. This is managed on behalf of the Kirk Session by our Safeguarding Coordinator. For more details of our policies and procedures, of if you have any safeguarding concerns which you would wish to discuss, contact the Coordinator, Jan McRobbie at safeguarding@stmachar.com or through the office.
Enjoy your trip with us: email education@stmachar.com
Katherine Williams, Education Officer