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Centred around the craggy hill on a curious loop in the River Wear, the glorious city of Durham is one of Britain’s finest historic cities. Shrouded in mystery and intrigue, it is a captivating place with a rich if not slightly turbulent history. Durham’s somewhat secluded location in the north-east of England means that it is often overlooked, but to forsake Durham is to miss out on some of the most magnificent and historically important buildings, and one of the most beautiful and unspoilt medieval city centres, to be found anywhere in Northern Europe.
The origins of Durham’s history started in the years following the death of St Cuthbert, whose remains were originally laid to rest on the island of Lindisfarne in 687AD. However, the violent Norse invasions of Northumbria in the 8th century forced the monks to flee the Holy Island with Cuthbert and the Lindisfarne Gospels. For more than a century, Cuthbert’s remains travelled the north of England, before finally reaching Durham in 995AD. A shrine in his memory can be found in Durham Cathedral, along with the tomb of the Venerable Bede, chronicler of Cuthbert’s life and the first English historian. Durham Cathedral, the finest example of a Norman Cathedral in the whole of the UK, is a World Heritage Site, ranked alongside the Taj Mahal and the Great Wall of China.
Durham, as the principal city of County Durham, grew as a prosperous market town in a kingdom ruled not by the crown, but by the powerful Prince Bishops. Yet its real economic wealth and power was derived from coal; the Durham Coalfield provided the staple industry for the region for centuries, and the ports of Sunderland and Seaham Harbour thrived as the black gold was exported until the final demise of coal mining in County Durham in 1993.
Today’s Durham serves not only as a tourist venue, but also as a centre for culture, education (the University of Durham is England’s third oldest behind Oxford and Cambridge), religion, nightlife and commerce. Durham is regarded by many to be the spiritual capital of the north-east; the proposed plans for devolution mooted Durham as the location for a north-east Assembly. To quote Bill Bryson ‘If you have never been to Durham, go there at once. Take my car. It's wonderful’.
The origins of Durham’s history started in the years following the death of St Cuthbert, whose remains were originally laid to rest on the island of Lindisfarne in 687AD. However, the violent Norse invasions of Northumbria in the 8th century forced the monks to flee the Holy Island with Cuthbert and the Lindisfarne Gospels. For more than a century, Cuthbert’s remains travelled the north of England, before finally reaching Durham in 995AD. A shrine in his memory can be found in Durham Cathedral, along with the tomb of the Venerable Bede, chronicler of Cuthbert’s life and the first English historian. Durham Cathedral, the finest example of a Norman Cathedral in the whole of the UK, is a World Heritage Site, ranked alongside the Taj Mahal and the Great Wall of China.
Durham, as the principal city of County Durham, grew as a prosperous market town in a kingdom ruled not by the crown, but by the powerful Prince Bishops. Yet its real economic wealth and power was derived from coal; the Durham Coalfield provided the staple industry for the region for centuries, and the ports of Sunderland and Seaham Harbour thrived as the black gold was exported until the final demise of coal mining in County Durham in 1993.
Today’s Durham serves not only as a tourist venue, but also as a centre for culture, education (the University of Durham is England’s third oldest behind Oxford and Cambridge), religion, nightlife and commerce. Durham is regarded by many to be the spiritual capital of the north-east; the proposed plans for devolution mooted Durham as the location for a north-east Assembly. To quote Bill Bryson ‘If you have never been to Durham, go there at once. Take my car. It's wonderful’.