Durham Castle

Stand still for a moment on Palace Green. Under your feet the ground is firm and grassy, and the air carries the faint damp smell of sandstone after rain. Somewhere below, out of sight, the River Wear is moving slowly around the rock. Ahead of you, a gatehouse and a long line of honey-coloured walls rise from the edge of the hill. This is Durham Castle. It has been lived in, almost without a break, for more than nine hundred years.

The site is no accident. The River Wear bends here in a tight loop, almost closing on itself. That loop leaves a steep, narrow peninsula of rock, with water on three sides. Whoever held this hill could watch the valley in every direction. The only easy approach was across the narrow neck of land to the north. The castle was built to guard that neck, and the cathedral was built at the other end of the green.

The story begins soon after the Norman Conquest of 1066. William the Conqueror had taken the English crown, but the north was restless and often in open revolt. A castle was begun here in the early 1070s, as one of many Norman strongholds across the country. Its first form was simple — an earth mound with a timber tower on top, and a walled enclosure beside it. Over the following centuries, timber gave way to stone, and the fortress grew.

Now for the first surprise. The men who ruled from this castle were not ordinary lords. They were bishops. The Bishops of Durham became known as Prince-Bishops, because the crown gave them powers close to those of a king. Within their lands they could raise troops, hold their own courts, and mint their own coins. The reason was practical. The border with Scotland was not far away, and the king wanted a strong ruler in the north who could not pass his power to sons.

So picture the castle as a palace as much as a fortress. Bishops entertained nobles and royal visitors here. They held court, collected rents, and governed a large territory. Each bishop wanted to leave his mark. That is why the buildings around the courtyard look so mixed. Norman arches stand beside medieval windows, and later stair towers and Victorian stonework sit on top of older walls. You are looking at many centuries of building, layered one over another.

The oldest part that survives is easy to miss. Deep inside the castle is a small Norman chapel, built in the late eleventh century. It is low and quite dark, with sturdy columns of sandstone. Look closely at the stone and you will see swirling patterns in the grain, almost like wood. The tops of the columns, called capitals, are carved with simple figures, animals and faces. For many visitors, this quiet room is the moment the castle's age becomes real.

Later bishops built on a grander scale. The Great Hall was raised around 1300, and it is one of the largest medieval halls of its kind in England. Its tall walls and high roof were made for feasts and ceremony. Here is the second surprise. The hall is still used every day as a dining room. Students eat their meals beneath the portraits and the old timber roof, in a space built for prince-bishops.

That is because the castle is not a museum. In the 1830s, the Bishop of Durham helped found Durham University and gave the castle to it. Today the building is the home of University College, the university's oldest college. Students live in rooms inside the medieval walls. They climb the same stairs and cross the same courtyard that bishops crossed centuries ago. It is one of the very few castles in Britain where daily student life fills the old rooms.

Inside, the guided tour usually takes you up the Black Staircase. This grand timber stair was added in the seventeenth century, during the time of Bishop John Cosin. It climbs several floors around an open well, and its heavy carved wood has darkened with age. Over time, the stair began to lean and sag under its own weight. Take a careful look at the angles as you go up. Not everything here is perfectly straight.

Another detail to watch for is a Norman doorway of the late twelfth century. Its round arch is covered in carved zigzags and bands of pattern, cut deep into the stone. At one time it was an outside entrance. Later building work enclosed it, and it now stands inside a gallery. That small change tells you a lot about the castle. Rooms were added, walls were moved, and older features were kept rather than thrown away.

The keep on top of the mound has its own story. The medieval tower fell into ruin over the centuries. In the nineteenth century it was rebuilt, largely to house students. So the outline you see on the mound is old in shape but much newer in stone. It is a good reminder to look carefully. In a place this old, a medieval look does not always mean medieval work.

In 1986, the castle and the cathedral were listed together as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. UNESCO is the United Nations body that protects places of special value to the world. The listing treats the two buildings as a pair, and that makes sense. Together they show how Norman power worked in England — the castle for ruling the land, and the cathedral for faith and authority. Both were in the hands of the same bishops.

When your tour ends, walk out through the gatehouse onto Palace Green again. Turn and look back at the walls, and then across the grass to the cathedral towers. Notice how close they are to each other. Notice too the sound of students crossing the green, bags on their shoulders, on their way to a lecture. If you follow the lanes down toward the river, you will see the rock that made all of this possible.

From the riverbank paths, the castle sits high above the trees, with the water running slowly below. The same steep slopes that protected the Norman builders still frame the view today. Take a moment there before you move on. The stone above you has seen bishops, kings and generations of students. Today it is simply part of your afternoon in Durham.