Photographs of Durham

Durham has a Norman Cathedral and an 11th century castle. It originated in AD 995 when a group of monks from Lindisfarne chose the strategic high peninsula as a place to settle with the body of Saint Cuthbert. The River Wear flows north through the city and flows around three sides of the hill creating the promontory on which the castle and the cathedral sit. The steep riverbanks are densely wooded adding to the beauty of the city. The promontory was historically surrounded by the castle wall extending from the castle keep and broken by two gatehouses to the north and west. During the Victorian era the walls were removed leaving just the gatehouse still standing on The Bailey.
Unfortunately I wasn't allowed to take photographs inside the cathedral so this will not appear on the site. The Castle was built by the Prince Bishops. After the Norman invasion King William appointed gave the Bishop of Durham the powers of a palatine earl. From then on Bishops of Durham had nearly all the powers within their `County Palatinate' that the king had in the rest of England and it is for this reason that history has named the old bishops of Durham, `the Prince Bishops'.