Durham Castle and Cathedral
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How it came to be
Monks guarding the body of St Cuthbert, Bishop of Lindisfarne, who died in 687, left the island in 875 to escape Viking raids and from 882 stayed at Chester-le-Street. In 995 they moved again and settled at Durham, where they built a church. Durham soon became a place of pilgrimage.
In 1072, six years after the Norman Conquest, building of a castle at Durham began on the orders of William the Conqueror. It became the seat of the Bishops of Durham, prince-bishops entitled to raise an army, levy taxes and mint coins, who stood guard against incursions from Scotland. On 11 August 1093 Bishop William de St-Calais laid the foundation stone of a new cathedral, and St Cuthbert's remains were moved into it in 1104. Its nave ceiling is the earliest surviving pointed rib vault.
After the Battle of Dunbar in 1650 the cathedral held up to 3,000 Scottish prisoners of war, of whom about 1,700 died there. The bishops lost their secular powers under an act of 1836, and the castle was given to the University of Durham, housing University College from 1837. The castle and cathedral were inscribed as a World Heritage site in 1986.
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