Durham Cathedral Pilgrimage in a Day

Cuddy’s Corse – Chester-le-Street to Durham Cathedral – 8 miles, 1 day

‍This pilgrimage route follows the final section of the path of St Cuthbert's body (corse) borne by monks escaping Viking attack.

It follows the riverside path from Chester-le-Street, then field edges up to Great Lumley, to the riverside Finchale Priory, home of the great 12-century pilgrim and hermit, St Godric.

From Finchale the path passes by Frankland prison, and on to the riverside at Durham with views of the castle and Durham Cathedral.

The river Wear is crossed by the ancient Framwellgate Bridge, and then walk the medieval Silver Street to the market square and Sadler street to Palace Green, surrounded by the Castle, university and the Cathedral, where there is a pilgrimage gallery, countless holy treasures, and remains of three great spiritual beings – Saint Cuthbert, Saint Oswald and the Venerable Bede – are buried.

Northern Saints Trails also offer several day routes to Durham Cathedral from other directions, comprising the final day stages of each of these longer routes.

Buy your Cathedral Pilgrim Passport here.

About St Cuthbert

Cuthbert was a shepherd in his youth, later to become monk, prior of Melrose Abbey, bishop of Lindisfarne, prophet, healer, and sometime hermit. During his ministry he lived a life of ‘intense poverty and physical hardship, travelling to wild areas and preaching hope to the community.

His visionary nature was evident early on: as a child he had a vision of a man on horseback who gave him a cure for his lameness; on another occasion a group of monks were being swept out to sea and the young boy Cuthbert caused the wind to change through prayer and the monks were returned to safety; in his teens, he also had ‘a vision of the soul of Aidan being carried to heaven by angels, and later found out that Aidan [his mentor] had died that night. In adulthood, as prior of Melrose, his devotion to God was so strong that he used to spend nights in prayer ‘immersed to the arm-pits in the sea’, and it is thought that through a hypothermia-induced trance he communed with God. After his last years spent mainly in solitude on an island near Lindisfarne, he died sitting ‘with his hands uplifted and his eyes gazing heavenwards’.

Long after his death, a community of Lindisfarne monks carried his body from Lindisfarne, via Chester-le-Street and Ripon, to Durham, where his relics eventually settled in 995AD.

Legend has it that Cuthbert communicated his final resting place to the monks by arresting the movement of his coffin at the bend in the river Wear at Dun Holm, the high wooded hill on which Durham Cathedral now stands.2,5 One of the most extraordinary aspects of Cuthbert’s ‘life’ was that his body, and the head of St. Oswald which had been placed next to it for safety, did not decay after death, even when exhumed eleven years afterwards, and again 406 years later.

Indeed, later still, during the reformation, Henry VIII’s men came to destroy Durham Cathedral yet, arguably on account of his miraculous physical state, they refrained from harming or removing Cuthbert’s relics. Now, it is said that the location of his body is known to only twelve monks, who pass on their secret to a chosen successor when they die.

Many other miracles have occurred in connection with Cuthbert since his death. For example, it is said that when the Lindisfarne gospels, with which Cuthbert is associated, were lost overboard as the monks crossed the Irish Sea, a vision of Cuthbert appeared before them, who foretold that they would find the book on a particular shore, which turned out to be the case. The book was intact too, apart from a few seawater stains, later verified by scientific analysis.

In addition to his contributions to humanity, the Lindisfarne Gospels also show that Cuthbert loved and protected animals, particularly birds and sea creatures, who were the subject of many illustrations throughout the text. He was fond of Eider ducks (often known as ‘Cuddy’s ducks) and enacted the first bird protection laws in history.

Once, emerging from praying all night in seawater, he was witnessed by another monk as having been followed by two otters, ‘who panted on Cuthbert's feet to dry them, and snuggled against his body to try to warm him with their fur’, and who stayed with him as he prayed, only departing when they had been blessed by him. One might say that Cuthbert was happiest living and contemplating among the sea birds and animals on the Farne islands.