Ely is a cathedral city and civil parish in the East Cambridgeshire district of Cambridgeshire, England, about 14 miles north-northeast of Cambridge, 24 miles south east of Peterborough and 80 miles from London. As of the 2021 census, Ely is recorded as having a population of 19,200. Ely is built on a 23-square-mile Kimmeridge Clay island which, at 85 feet, is the highest land in the Fens.