A WRITER and a photographer have spent 15 days retracing the
1660-mile route taken by medieval monks as they criss-crossed
northern England and Scotland in search of a safe resting-place for
the relics of St Cuthbert.
The writer-in-residence at Durham University's School of Applied
Sciences, Richard Hardwick, and the photographer Paul Alexander
Knox undertook the journey to mark the temporary return of the
Lindisfarne Gospels to Durham this summer.
They left Lindisfarne, on the Northumberland coast, where St
Cuthbert had been bishop, on 21 April, and completed their travels
at Durham Cathedral on 4 May.
Along the way, they visited 47 locations, from Edinburgh in the
north to Bolton, Lancashire, in the south - where, it is claimed,
the monks paused on their seven-year trek to find a refuge from
Vikings.
They blogged about their travels en route; and a photography
show, book, and touring exhibition of their experiences is planned.
They also hope that it will launch the route as a national
tourist-trail.
Mr Hardwick, from Hartlepool, said: "It was quite emotional when
we arrived at Durham Cathedral. It was time away from the stress
and busyness of everyday life. There is a lot of writing to do now
. . . but the journey is now complete.
"This project links villages and towns to a vital moment in the
country's history, and helps celebrate their people and history
from the ninth century right up to 2013. The north of England has a
great history, from ancient Northumbria and early Christianity,
from the Anglo-Scottish wars and the Border Reivers to industry and
resource that helped fuel an empire."
St Cuthbert, the great saint of northern England, was buried at
Lindisfarne in 687, but in 875 the Danes attacked the monastery,
and the monks fled, carrying with them the saint's body, the
Gospels, and other relics. For seven years, they trekked across
modern-day Northumberland, the Scottish Borders, Cumbria, and
Yorkshire, eventually halting at what is now Chester-le-Street, in
Co. Durham.
But another Danish invasion in 995 forced a new move: first to
Ripon, in North Yorkshire, and then to a new stone building, known
as the White Church, on a headland overlooking the River Wear, now
occupied by Durham Cathedral.
The monks' exact route is uncertain. The Northumbrian
Association website states that the only record of the journey was
written by Simeon, a Durham monk in the 12th century. It mentions
only four places: the mouth of the Derwent; Whithorn, in Cumbria;
Crayke, in North Yorkshire, and Chester-le-Street.
The other locations were visited because churches there were
named after St Cuthbert, and claimed that they were built because
his body rested there. This list was first created by John
Wessington, a 15th-century prior of Durham Abbey.
For a full list of the 47 resting-points on the journey, visit
www.stcuthbertsfinaljourney.com.