A place for Cuddy

We have both read and thoroughly enjoyed Cuddy. So it seemed obvious that we should go to Durham. We have been to Durham and the Cathedral many, many times over the years (Gordon had his graduation there) but suddenly today it looked different, as we viewed it through the lens of the book and the story it told. 

Saint Cuthbert is of course the main character in the book, his spirit is there throughout, but the Cathedral is the centre around which the story revolves - it is the story. Right from the start, as Cuthbert’s followers trudge along trying to find “a resting place fit for a saint” through to Edyva the young girl who has a vision of what they will find: 

“I have seen it . . . 

. . . the great jutting bluff of rock, a place awaiting our arrival, to be carved and shaped and adorned and consecrated as a cathedral in our sainted Cuddy’s name.”

Then the story is taken up over the centuries with the builders, the carvers and the people who live around and within the Cathedral, those whose lives are entwined with it. 

Durham Cathedral
“a place so ornate and beautiful as to steal the breath from the bodies of all who see it” . . . and it does just that - every time. 



We visited the Cathedral and especially the shrine to St Cuthbert. Then we walked down to the riverside path below the Cathedral and eventually onto the bridge, which is where the iconic shots are taken. Not a good day for a photograph - poor light, too much foliage, no camera - and I have other and better photos of the Cathedral, but I wanted to show the way it rises above the rocky bluff which is made almost into an island by the river. Easy to imagine this as a vision of what could be, almost a thousand years ago.