Durham Castle

If you are visiting Durham you should definitely include Durham Castle on your itinerary. However, there are a few things about such a visit that are a little out of the ordinary.

Durham Castle was originally built by the Normans in the 1070s and, like most castles in Great Britain, there has been a considerable amount of alteration and fresh building work done in the intervening centuries. The purpose of building a castle here was that King William I (the Conqueror) needed a strong base from which to complete his conquest of northern England, which had proved to be very difficult.

He delegated the task of securing the northern counties to the bishops of Durham, who were known as “Prince Bishops” from 1076 to 1837. During this time, therefore, the Castle was the official residence of the Bishop of Durham.

However, in 1832 the University of Durham was created, and from 1837 the Castle became the central focus of the University. The Bishop moved out (to Bishop Auckland) and the Castle became University College Durham, which is still its status today.

This means that the visitor is seeing not only a castle but also a working college of a university. If the visit is made during term-time there are quite likely to be students and staff moving about, which in turn means that visitors have to be escorted around the castle and there are many areas that are “out of bounds”.

Three tours are held each day – at 2.00pm, 3.00pm and 4.00pm – and tickets can be bought in advance (£5.00 each) at the old university library on Palace Green just outside the Castle.

The tours are conducted by college students who are not only highly knowledgeable but also very personable and willing to answer questions about student life as well as the history of the Castle. The guide will make clear at the outset that photography is allowed outside the buildings but not inside.

The tour does not include the Castle keep, which consists almost entirely of student rooms. Instead, the group of visitors is taken first to the Great Hall, which is used these days for formal college meals. At one end is a gallery in which are displayed weapons and armour that date from the Civil War – the armour was used for test purposes to see how well it kept musket balls out!

The Tunstall Chapel is next on the itinerary, with its fascinating carved misericords (upturned seats so that a worshipper could stand and rest at the same time). The passageway leading to the chapel contains a very rare feature, namely a Norman archway that is probably the best of its kind anywhere. It was the original entrance to the Castle, and was therefore ornately carved, but it was preserved from wear and tear by being covered in plaster for centuries and also because an outer wall has now been built to create the passageway which thus keeps protects the archway from wind and weather.

The “black staircase” dates from the 17^th century. It was originally designed to be free-standing, but it soon became clear that it would need pillars to support it. Unfortunately even these are now showing signs of serious strain which means that only the lowest section of the staircase can be used. An interesting feature of the staircase is the pineapple design of its finials, made at a time when pineapples were extremely rare in England – to display a pineapple, even a wooden one, was a sign of one’s wealth. Unfortunately, the carver of these pineapples had clearly never seen a real one!

Perhaps the most remarkable survival from the past is the Castle’s original Norman chapel that has remained virtually unaltered for more than 900 years. The walls are five feet thick apart from one place where the wall could, if necessary, be breached from the inside to provide an escape route from the Castle. Six round pillars support the roof, and the capitals of the columns are decorated with carved reliefs that are only partially inspired by Christian iconography. There is, for example, a pagan “green man” and the earliest known representation in the country of a mermaid.

The Castle tour is well worth the fiver, and you might consider the student’s suggestion of an extra contribution towards their tuition fees (or beer fund) not to be at all unreasonable!

© John Welford