The altar is thought to be situated on the site of Carthage’s first wooden beehive cell when he and his fellow monks arrived here in 635.
Above the altar is the distinctively clear glass of the East Window. The simplicity and transparency of the east Window is in a creative contrast with the exotic plaster bossing of the ceiling. A picture in the library corridor shows the layout of the chancel at the turn of the 20th century. The altar was closer to the choir stalls with a rood screen before the East Window. There was no screen at the east arch and the congregation were seated in the nave.