Travel writer Gemma Hall explored Durham extensively by bicycle and on foot to produce this brand new title in Bradt's award-winning series of Slow travel guides to UK regions. Walkers, cyclists, wildlife lovers, families, pilgrims and railway enthusiasts are all catered for, with coverage of a wide range of attractions, historic sites and landscapes.
As the only comprehensive guidebook to Durham, it also contains all the practical information you could need to enjoy time in this diverse yet under-explored English county. Unexpected treats throng in a region home to Tanfield Railway (the world's oldest line), fellside Methodist chapels accessed by remote footpaths crossing silvery burns, some of England’s most powerful waterfalls, ski runs and arctic-alpine plants with a lineage to the last Ice Age. And even well-known sites offer surprises: famed for its cathedral, medieval streets, world-renowned university and 500 listed buildings, the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Durham city also offers miles of riverside rambles to historic gardens and the ruins of a 13th-century priory.
Durham city may be fêted by up to 4.37 million tourists a year (2019 figures), yet few visitors venture into the county's wider countryside, with its unsung wooded valleys, old mining villages, Heritage Coast Path, and the rugged hills and valleys of Weardale and thriving meadows filled with rare upland wildflowers.
Key attractions such as Castle Barnard's medieval fort and High Force waterfall (England's biggest) are described in intimate detail - but so too are many places that have never made it into a guide on Durham: lesser-known museums, birdwatching sites and historical buildings. Here too are more remote treats that need tracking down by cycling old railway trails, or on foot, following old packhorse trails to reach abandoned abandoned 18th- and 19th-century lead mines, secluded bathing pools and the display grounds of the black grouse, a rare moorland bird.
Whether you are keen to experience Saxon churches or England's industrial heritage, to wander the uplands of Upper Teesdale or stride boldly along miles of coastline, discover Durham with Bradt's unique Slow guide.
