Durham City is a remarkable place, a priceless historical gem and, deservedly, a World Heritage Site. Over 1,000 years Durham’s great beauty and history has inspired many architectural descriptions and guides. This book follows in their footsteps but then takes a different path. Wandering through the cathedral’s darkened cloisters, the city’s narrow medieval streets and the river’s winding pathways, Secret City of Durham is one man’s view of this famed peninsula – an occasionally quirky tour through history that looks beyond the iconic architecture and behind the fascinating jumble of city buildings. The author peels back their façades to reveal the bewildering changes and on the way points out the lesser-known facts and characters associated with them. What points the way to Durham Cathedral and St Cuthbert’s tomb and where can it be found? Who lived in Windy Gap? Why St Mary-the-’Less’? Secret City of Durham answers these fascinating questions and many more in a modern pilgrimage through the city.
