Durham World Heritage Site Visitor Centre - Durham

david H.

The Visitor Centre, a stone’s throw from Durham Cathedral, is a great little starting point before you head into the main building. It’s not huge, but it sets the scene really nicely with displays about the Cathedral’s history, the monks, and how St Cuthbert ended up here. There are also interactive bits, so it’s easy to dip into whether you’re a history buff or just wandering through.

Mark S.

Great place to vist and free to get in lots of history but the library was best of all had to book but was well worth it

Toni C.

So, so worth a visit! We walked all over. Don’t miss the town square and shops all around there too. Wonderful bookshop called People’s Book Shop. It was lovely! The site is really quite something. All the volunteers in the cathedral were so friendly, welcoming and informative. The cathedral is one of the best I’ve been in, ever. The castle is stunning and the library is breathtaking. This amazing and historic place is not to be missed.

Andrew C.

The visitor centre had a few leaflets as well as a help desk to book castle tours etc. The display area has lots of really interesting things in cases, but not overly interactive for the small people who became quickly bored, which meant I then didn't have the chance to read everything...!

Lots of great info, but could be better...!

Justin W.

Having visited recently the Shakespeare Folio Exhibition, and the beautiful library. I can recommend this to everyone interested in the first folio, its loss, and subsequent retrieval.

S O.

Duram cathedral is utterly stunning. The history of the place is amazing. And the skill and genius of the builders,working with the limited technology of the time left me feeling very humble. Go there .

Jeroen B.

Perfect place to start your visit of historic Durham. Very informative exposition.
Cousin’s library is a beautiful gem located within this building. Definitely reserve some time to visit this.

WH S.

Very helpful for the first day of my trip. I had a huge backpack and was allowed to drop it off at the locker and wandered around the city. Two young female and male staff were extremely friendly and nice. I love the souvenir that I bought there as well.

However, the reason I gave two stars was my horrible experience with one old female white staff the next day. I asked for the same thing if I could drop my backpack at the locker, but she angrily said ‘this is not a place to drop off your personal item and go. As soon as you step out of this building, you have to bring your backpack.’ Astonished, me and my friend just said yes and left the place. In the meantime, I saw one white guy putting his bag in the locker. We were outside for a few seconds and then that guy came out without his backpack. So why didn't that old female staff stop him from doing so? The only possible explanation was the difference of races. Given that her talking and behaviour was very rude to us (non-whites) while she did not act in that way to the white guy, I felt that we were discriminated by the skin color. Given that this city is highly white dominant city, maybe her behaviour is acceptable in Durham? Such an awful experience and I sincerely hope that that old female white staff should get punished and correct her 19 century's racist behaviours.