The Cathedral Church of St Peter and St Wilfrid is the fourth church to occupy the same site. Originally founded as a monastery by Scottish monks in the 660s, it was rededicated as a Benedictine monastery by St Wilfrid in 672. It was destroyed by the English King Eadred in 948, with only the 7th century crypt surviving. After rebuilding it was again devastated in 1069 by William the Conqueror.  A third church was constructed under the watch of Thomas of Bayeux, the first Norman Archbishop of York.

The current church was rebuilt again in 1180 to promote pilgrimages to Wilfrid's crypt. It gained its famous west front in 1220, when the twin towers were crowned with wooden spires. The building was badly damaged during the Wars of the Roses and the English Civil War. It was established as a collegiate church by charter of James I in 1604, which lasted until the 19th century when the first English post-Reformation diocese was formed, thus Ripon Minster became Ripon Cathedral.