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Please note: Organ Tuning will be taking place until 4pm on Monday August 10th which may make the Cathedral louder than usual and some visitors may find the noise uncomfortable.
Various dates and times
9 July - 1 November
Discover how the site of Durham Cathedral has been studied in the past, the artefacts found nearby and in surrounding villages and the people behind the work.
See illustrations in centuries-old books and manuscripts, jewellery, an iron & gold spearhead, a replica of Bede's skull, a colourful crucifix, and more.
Durham has been a destination for pilgrims since 995, when the community of St Cuthbert first settled here. See a centuries-old scallop shell that was found in a medieval grave at the cathedral, which represents a sign of pilgrimage.
See an ampulla (small flask), a pilgrim souvenir, that carried a few drops of holy water, oil or even dust from a shrine.
Sculptures that date back to the 3rd or 4th Century were found in Lanchester, 8 miles from Durham.
Members of the cathedral's governing body were antiquaries and historians who explored areas of Hadrian's Wall and other nearby Roman sites. Items found by themselves or collegues ended up in the cathedral's collections.
Get up close to a cast of Bede's skull and see a miniature St Cuthbert's coffin. In 1831 Canon Raine opened Bede's tomb in the Galilee Chapel and had three plaster casts of Bede's skull made, commenting that the forehead and brow was 'remarkably flat'.
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