Durham Sights

  1. Crook Hall

    Crook Hall is a medieval hall with 1.6 hectares of charming small gardens, about 200m north of the town centre.

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  2. Durham Castle

    Built as a standard motte-and-bailey fort in 1072, Durham Castle was the prince bishops' home until 1837, when it became the first college of the new university. It remains a university hall, and you can stay here.

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  3. Durham Cathedral

    Durham's most famous building - and the main reason for visiting unless someone you know is at university here - has earned superlative praise for so long that to add more would be redundant; how can you do better than the 19th-century novelist Nathaniel Hawthorne, who wrote fawningly: 'I never saw so lovely a magnificent a scene, nor (being content with this) do I care to see better.' Let's not go nuts here.

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  4. Durham Heritage Centre

    Near Durham Cathedral, in what was the St Mary le Bow Church, is the Durham Heritage Centre, with a pretty crowded collection of displays on Durham's history from the Middle Ages to mining. It's all suitably grim, especially the reconstructed prison cells.

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  5. Durham Light Infantry (DLI) Museum

    If you can't get enough of war and the uniforms people wear to fight them, you won't want to miss the Durham Light Infantry (DLI) Museum, 500m northwest of town. The history of Durham's County Regiment and its part in various wars from 1758 to 1968 is brought to life through anecdotes and poignant artefacts; there's a small art gallery with changing exhibitions.

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  6. Museum of Archaeology

    Durham and its environs have other museums that may be of interest, including the small Museum of Archaeology, located in a converted riverside mill building.

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  7. Oriental Museum

    Durham and its environs have other museums that may be of interest, including the Oriental Museum, 3 miles south of the city centre in the university campus. It has a good collection that ranges from fine Egyptian artefacts to a monster of a Chinese bed. Take bus 5 or 6.

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