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Photo: Oliver Dixon, CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons
The earliest parts are Norman, but this is mostly an 1820-40s rebuild, a Victorian mansion with mock castellations. You visit by guided tours, dates and times vary but usually on Thursday.
Brancepeth Castle is a castle in the village of Brancepeth in County Durham, England, some 5 miles south-west of the city of Durham. It is a Grade I listed building.
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This building, opened in 2024 and run by Durham county council, is both a museum and the home of the county's archives. You can learn a lot about the local history here. It is free to visit and hosts a small café.
Part of Durham University, this museum displays artefacts from across Asia and North Africa. Search their online data base for material not on display.
10-hectare woodland gardens run by Durham University, with many exotics.
This was built as a Roman Catholic seminary from 1804, after the French Revolution drove the priesthood from Douai. Anti-Catholic persecution in England had eased, but there was still a risk of local agitation, so they pretended it was a secular country mansion and screened it behind high beech hedges. You'd think someone would notice that Pugin was the architect, and that many earnest young men in birettas were traipsing in and out, but the landowner was a sympathiser. It became the principal RC seminary in the north of England but closed in 2011. You can visit house, chapel and gardens, and it's sometimes an event venue.
Durham bishopric was founded in 995 AD by monks from Lindisfarne, fleeing Viking raids, and bringing their holy relics with them. Early Norman bishops were of royal status - hence their title "Prince Bishop" - and they built the present cathedral from 1093. It's a magnificent structure, part of a World Heritage Site, with a soaring nave and 66 metre tower. The relics of Saint Cuthbert and the Venerable Bede, and hundreds of ancient artefacts, are on display in the museum (M-Sa 10AM-5PM, Su from 12:30PM, adults £7.50). The northwest (or "Galilee") tower is visited on booked guided tours, adults £7.50, 137 steps and a fair bit of pigeon poo. The cathedral is a working church, please respect services and private prayer, and there may be part-closures at short notice eg for funerals.