Places to explore near Durham

A cathedral city looped by the River Wear, its Norman cathedral and castle rising together above the wooded riverbanks and cobbled Bailey.

0.2 km E · County Durham

The great Norman cathedral on its rock above the Wear, shrine of St Cuthbert and the Venerable Bede.

0.3 km S

Graceful three-arch bridge over the Wear giving Durham's most-painted view of cathedral and wooded banks.

0.6 km S

Vast open-air museum near Stanley recreating northern life across the 1820s, 1900s and 1940s with trams and shops.

12.9 km NW

Outdoor live-action night spectacular near Bishop Auckland, staging 2,000 years of English history and myth.

13.3 km SW

A medieval deer park of the Bishops of Durham, with an 18th-century Deer House folly.

13.3 km SW

Greek-temple folly on a prominent hill.

13.5 km NE

Museum at the Auckland Project telling 6,000 years of belief in Britain through 250 objects.

13.7 km SW

A County Durham market town gathered around Auckland Castle, the palace of the Prince Bishops, and now the Kynren night spectacle and the Faith Museum.

14.1 km SW · County Durham

Hundred acres of wetland, wood and meadow on the Wear, home to wild birds, flamingos and otters.

14.9 km NE

One of the most complete Saxon churches in England, built around 670 from stone robbed from the Roman fort at Binchester.

14.9 km SW

The world's oldest surviving railway bridge of 1726, a single stone arch high above the wooded Causey Burn.

15.3 km NW

Antony Gormley's rust-red steel angel, 20 metres tall with a 54-metre wingspan, watching the A1 into Gateshead.

15.4 km N

The world's oldest railway, now a heritage steam line through the Causey valley from Europe's oldest engine shed.

16 km NW

England's high, quiet backbone of moorland tops, waterfalls and old lead-mining dales, designated in 1988

17.1 km W

Headland south of Seaham looking over the once-blackened, now-recovering sands of Blast Beach.

17.1 km E

Ray Lonsdale's weathered-steel First World War soldier sitting on Seaham seafront, head bowed.

17.2 km NE

Sea-glass beach and the 'Tommy' war statue.

17.2 km NE

The largest ancient woodland in north-east England, a deep wooded ravine running down to the coast at Horden.

18.1 km E

A Georgian landscape estate with a ruined hall and Palladian chapel by James Paine.

18.7 km NW

Coast to coast along the Roman frontier, milecastle by milecastle.

20.5 km N · Northumberland, Cumbria & Tyne and Wear

The great green steel arch of 1928 that frames the Newcastle skyline, forerunner of Sydney's harbour bridge.

21.4 km N

Norman Foster's curved glass-and-steel concert hall on the Gateshead riverbank, formerly Sage Gateshead.

21.4 km N

Vast converted flour mill on the Gateshead quay, now a free contemporary art gallery with a rooftop view.

21.5 km N

Tilting 'blinking eye' footbridge that arcs across the Tyne between the Quayside and BALTIC.

21.6 km N

Long curving Victorian breakwater at Sunderland with a red-and-white lighthouse and a hidden tunnel beneath.

21.6 km NE

An early-19th-century estate with an obelisk and two temples across 300 hectares.

22.2 km SE

Steep wooded valley park in Newcastle along the Ouseburn, with waterfalls, ruins and old woodland.

23.8 km N

The Wear from mouth to moor — Roker pier to Cowshill, passing beneath Durham Cathedral on the way up the dale.

0.1 km W · County Durham & Tyne and Wear

Monthly food producers' and crafters' market in the heart of Durham city.

0.1 km N

Little Grade II Durham pub barely changed since 1899, coal fires and cask ale a step from the cathedral.

0.6 km SE

Series of intimate walled and cottage gardens around a medieval hall on the edge of Durham city.

0.7 km N

Restored hilltop park above Durham station with the classic postcard view over the cathedral and castle.

0.7 km NW

Ten hectares of woodland, glasshouses and themed plantings on the wooded southern edge of the city.

1.8 km S

Former Catholic college outside Durham with soaring Pugin chapels, cloisters, gardens and a café.

5.7 km W