Durham; Saturday, 29 May, 2021

I had an early breakfast in the hotel before heading out for a morning of exercise, which probably wasn’t the wisest of moves given I’d been pretty much sedentary for the previous six months. First stop was a quick stop up the hill to the cathedral to have a look around this stunning Norman building. In 995 monks from Lindisfarne brough the body of St Cuthburt to this site to protect it from the Viking raids that were constantly hitting their monastery. A small shrine was built where the body was entombed, and when the Normans arrived they decided this would make a perfect building to upgrade to a grand Cathedral, with building taking a suitably cathedral like 300 odd years to reach the current structure.

After looking round the cathedral and cloister, and having a quick cup of tea in the café to fortify myself I headed to the central tower for the first bit of major exercise in a long time as I attempted the 325 step climb to the top of the tower.

The climb itself took only a little more than 5 minutes, but my lungs and virtually every muscle from my back down didn’t appreciate it, and by the time I got to the top I was seriously questioning some of my choices. However, the views from the top of the tower were enough to crush those thoughts with the city laid out beneath me, including the stunning structure of the castle – which these days is halls of residence for the university – that’s only really visible from height.

With Covid restrictions you only get a 40 minutes window in which to complete both your ascent and descent, but that was enough to take in the views and to get my heart rate and muscles back down to a point where I could contemplate the descent – which whilst it wasn’t anywhere near as painful on the lungs and leg muscles did really get my knees complaining.

Back down at ground level I grabbed a quick lunch and then headed over towards the bus station to head for my second bout of exercise of the day. The bus station itself was in the process of being demolished, so instead I had to track down from which one of the 10 or so temporary stops strung out along the street my bus was due to leave from, naturally it was the furthest.

I caught the bus out to the small suburb of Brasside, getting off the bus right outside the prisons! From there it was a pretty straight forward mile walk along a country lane to the ruins of Finchale Priory.

The abbey was built just before the turn of the 13th Century and was home to a community of Benedictine monks. As with most religious institutions of its type it was closed down during the reformation with the priory closing in 1536 and its fall into ruins starting then.

Today large parts of the structure still remain, and you can clearly make out cloisters and main buildings, though none of the roofs and quite a few of the walls are long since gone. I spent quite a bit of time wandering around the ruins, and was quite glad that the small kiosk on site was selling water to be able to freshen up.

I then walked just over a mile back to the bus stop beyond the prison – for some reason I didn’t feel like waiting at the bus stop right next to a prison that houses some of the UKs worst prisoners (including terrorists, serial killers and the former president of Liberia), so I headed on to the next stop closer to Durham. By the time I got to the bus stop I was really starting to feel the effects of both the tower climb and quite a bit of walking, so I was glad when the bus turned up with big comfy seats and I was able to rest my legs for about 25 minutes.

Back in Durham I walked – or more likely staggered slightly – back to the hotel and then had a well deserved long bath, before deciding I couldn’t be bothered to go out again, so I ordered dinner from room service and then turned in for the night.