What's On

Durham Cathedral is the resting place of St Cuthbert, built to house his shrine. 

Cuthbert is often referred to as the Patron Saint of Northern England and every year we celebrate his life and influence with an array of special services and events on and around 20 March, his saint’s day. 

The 14th century Great Kitchen is one of the highlights of the Cathedral's award-winning museum experience, Open Treasure. Today, it houses the Treasures of St Cuthbert, but it has seen many changes over the centuries. This exhibition explores its history, how it was built, and gives an insight into the food and drink that would have been prepared there.

The Undercroft Restaurant hosts a selling exhibition of works by local artist Jenny Ulyatt.

Join us for our regular Ten Minute Talk in Open Treasure. Hear one of our experienced Gallery Attendants sharing their insights into Durham Cathedral’s history and collections in a short, informative talk. Today join Katie Dyer for her talk "St. Cuthbert and St. Wilfrid: the very different lives of two seventh-century Bishops and Saints".

Join us for our regular Ten Minute Talk in Open Treasure. Hear one of our experienced Gallery Attendants sharing their insights into Durham Cathedral’s history and collections in a short, informative talk. Today join Anne-Marie Ashman for her talk "The Great Kitchen; An introduction to its history, and the feasting and fasting that took place there".

Join us for our regular Ten Minute Talk in Open Treasure. Hear one of our experienced Gallery Attendants sharing their insights into Durham Cathedral’s history and collections in a short, informative talk. Today join Kendra Johnson for her talk "Christian Monastic Rules from the 4th to 6th Centuries: St Benedict’s Rules in context".

Does your child love to sing? Enjoy an afternoon making music with the Durham Cathedral Choristers, and get a taste of life at The Chorister School, an 'excellent' school at the heart of Durham's World Heritage Site.

Boys and girls in years 2-6 invited to this free event.

Join us for our regular Ten Minute Talk in Open Treasure. Hear one of our experienced Gallery Attendants sharing their insights into Durham Cathedral’s history and collections in a short, informative talk. Today join Kendra Johnson for her talk "Christian Monastic Rules from the 4th to 6th Centuries: St Benedict’s Rules in context." 

Join Durham University Chamber Choir for a journey across the British Isles as they explore works by composers of the 20th and 21st centuries hailing from all corners of the country. Visit Wales through the music of Paul Mealor, Cambridge in Owain Park’s ‘Footsteps, and end in Durham with a brand new commission by Durham University student Lizzy Hardy, and Durham alumnus James MacMillan’s glorious Tenebrae Responsories.

Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of Lent which is the 40-day period (not including Sundays) of fasting and repentance leading up to Easter.

Our Lenten journey begins with Eucharist at 7.30am, followed by Morning Prayer at 8.45am, Eucharist at 12.30pm, Evensong at 5.15pm and a sung Eucharist at 7.30pm. 

Durham University Choral Society return to Durham Cathedral for a night of French music.

Stephen has worked with acrylic and watercolour for forty years, and his works reflect a lifelong passion for the days of steam railways. A selling exhibition in the Cathedral's Undercroft Restaurant.

We are delighted to welcome children from local schools to join with the Cathedral's Boy and Girl Choristers to sign in our termly Music Outreach Celebration.

Public access to the nave of the cathedral may be limited between 10am and 3pm for the rehearsal and afternoon concert.

The Stations of the Cross are a time-honoured means of walking with Christ the way of his passion.  At each station, the congregation gathers around symbols as a focus for prayer and intentions for prayer are suggested.  By walking the way of the Cross, worshippers express a Lenten desire to follow Jesus more closely.

Explore Open Treasure, our world-class exhibition experience, beginning in the magnificent 14-century Monk's Dormitory and taking in the Treasures of St Cuthbert and our interactive Pilgrimage Gallery. 

The exhibition is open every day from 10am - 5pm with last entry at 4pm.  Tickets are 2-for-1 during St Cuthbert Festival - Wednesday 20 March to Saturday 23 March 2019.

This joyous service commemorating the life of St Cuthbert includes the Lucernarium (the blessing of the light), and the offering of incense.

A musical celebration by pupils from the Chorister School. 

To celebrate the inspiring building created to honour and house St Cuthbert, all online and in-person donations to the Cathedral on 23 March will be doubled, thanks to match-funding from the National Lottery Heritage Fund. We're putting the money towards Foundation 2020, an endowment campaign raising funds for the care and repair of this amazing building. 

The Northumbrian Association holds its annual walk from Chester-le-Street to Durham Cathedral in honour of St Cuthbert. The walk is symbolic of the arrival of the body and relics of St Cuthbert in Durham in 995AD, and the formation of the Anglo-Saxon White Church, the precusor of today's great Norman Cathedral. 

An opportunity to purchase local food and produce in a special market in the Cathedral Cloister.

Storyteller Adam Bushnell will celebrate St Cuthbert with stories about the Anglo Saxons and the vicious Vikings! There will be object handling and other activities suitable for ages 3+.

Free public tours take place at 10am, 10.30am, 11am, 1pm and 3pm. 

For more information please visit https://www.durhamcathedral.co.uk/visit-us/guided-tours

Durham Cathedral Choir is joined by Newcastle Cathedral Choir to honour our Northern Saint. The service concludes with a procession to the Feretory, the Shrine of St Cuthbert. All are welcome. 

This is music by composers whose lives took them into different musical and spiritual moods but who speak clearly across the centuries, shedding colour and light on one another, and culminating in a musical tapestry as extraordinary as any Renaissance stained-glass window would have been to a pilgrim coming to a Cathedral for the first time on a sunlit morning. The programme for the concert will include Howell's Requiem and music by Tallis, including Spem in Alium.

Palm Sunday marks the beginning of Holy Week, and commemorates Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem riding on a donkey. 

Durham Cathedral Choir joins forces with the Avison Ensemble to perform Bach’s stunning St John Passion on the evening of Palm Sunday 2019. This unmissable concert will be conducted by Daniel Cook, Master of the Choristers and Organist at Durham Cathedral.  The orchestra will be led by renowned period instrument violinist Pavlo Beznosiuk.  The Evangelist will be sung by Phil Durrant, Lay-Clerk, Durham Cathedral, with other solos sung by members of the Cathedral Choir. 

An evening service of contemplation and prayer that has been offered since the days of monastic life.

An evening service of contemplation and prayer that has been offered since the days of monastic life.

An evening service of contemplation and prayer that has been offered since the days of monastic life.

Bishops, priests and deacons of the diocese renew their ministerial vows at a service of Holy Communion on the day before the commemoration of the crucifixion of Jesus.

Maundy Thursday is the evening of the Last Supper. On his final evening with his disciples, Jesus instituted the Eucharist, commanding his disciples to wash one anothers' feet.  After that final meal, Jesus and his disciples went out to the Garden of Gethsemane to pray.

At the centre of Good Friday is the Cross. In this service its meaning is brought home to us in three ways: first by hearing the account of the Passion in St John’s Gospel; then by praying for all those for whom Christ died; then by reflecting on and reverencing a visible cross.

Many Christians are familiar with the traditional Stations of the Cross as a devotion used customarily on Fridays and during Lent and Passiontide. In more recent years, complementary series of devotions around the biblical accounts of the Resurrection have been developed by the Liturgical Commission of the Church of England in Common Worship: Times and Seasons. The service is a dramatic procession, exploring by movement, symbol, word and music the mystery of the Resurrection.

The Cathedral community commemorates the ‘Father of English learning’ with a Sung Eucharist held at his shrine in the Galilee Chapel.

We continue with our celebrations of Bede, ‘the Father of English learning’ with Choral Evensong and Procession.

We celebrate our Lord's ascension into heaven with Solemn Evensong at 5.15pm, followed by Sung Eucharist at 7.30pm. 

Pentecost calls to mind the descent of the Holy Spirit to Jesus’ disciples and the beginning of their mission to take God’s word out into the world.

This exhibition in Open Treasure, Durham Cathedral's award-winning museum experience, traces the history of Vikings in North East England. It tells the story of the devastating raids on Lindisfarne in 793 AD, and how the Community of St Cuthbert searched for a safe home for their saint after leaving Lindisfarne in 875 AD. We also examine how, over a period of over 200 years, the Vikings invaders and later settlers shaped the political and cultural landscape of Northumbria through raids, trade and conquest.

The Feast of Corpus Christi (Latin, ‘the Body of Christ’) is a day in which we give thanks for the gift of Holy Communion. Christ’s command to break bread and share wine together, in remembrance of him, is at the heart of Christian worship, and we call this to mind at every Holy Communion.

New Priests of the Diocese are ordained by the Bishop, and their ministry inaugurated, in a celebratory service at the Cathedral.

New Deacons of the Diocese are ordained by the Bishop, and their ministry inaugurated, during a great service of celebration in the Cathedral. 

Thousands of people from across the County and beyond come to Durham to celebrate the rich mining heritage of the North East. This day of festivites culminates in the procession of pit banners, preceded by the pit brass bands, to the Cathedral, where they are laid up, and often new banners are dedicated.

September 4 has long been venerated as the anniversary of the enshrining in 999 of the body of St Cuthbert in the original ‘White Church’ prior to the building of the present Cathedral, and we celebrate this today with Sung Eucharist at 11.15am.

Veterans from the Durham Light Infantry hold an annual reunion service in the Cathedral, at which the regimental roll of honour is read and hymns and prayers are offered in commemoration of the fallen, and those who have died since the previous reunion. The service centres around the Durham Light Infantry Chapel, in which the regimental colours are preserved. 

The Battle of Britain, a pivotal conflict of the Second World War, saved England from invasion and prepared the way for the subsequent liberation of Europe and the defeat of the Nazis.  The bravery and sacrifice of so many men is commemorated at Evensong today.

Michael, Gabriel and Raphael are the three named biblical angels, depicted as the beloved messengers of God.  A basilica near Rome was dedicated in the fifth century in honour of Michael on 30 September, beginning with celebrations on the eve of that day, and 29 September is now kept in honour of Michael and all Angels throughout the western Church.  

An exhibition in Open Treasure, Durham Cathedral's award-winning museum experience, showcasing the exquisite and extraordinary maps, charts and atlases in the Durham Cathedral Library collections, including early maps of Durham.

A special day of services in honour of God’s saints including Holy Communion at 7.30am, and a Sung Eucharist in the Quire at 7.30pm.

On All Souls’ Day, we commemorate all those whom we have loved and lost, at a celebration of the Eucharist. All are welcome to attend and give thanks for the life of a family member or friend.

The Cathedral Community is joined by military representatives and dignitaries to remember those who have given their lives for their country and the serving soldiers who put their lives at risk today. The service will be followed by wreath-laying and a formal parade.