Experience the Magic of County Durham with Anna Unger

What if you could uncover County Durham's hidden gems and rich heritage through the eyes of a local expert? In this week's episode of the UK Travel Planning Podcast, Tracy is joined by Anna Unger, a Blue Badge guide who lives and works in the northeast of England, to delve deeper into the wonders of County Durham. 

This episode perfectly complements episode 117, where Michelle Gorman, the managing director of Visit County Durham, provided an insightful overview of this northern county. Today, Anna shares her love for County Durham and why it's such an enchanting destination for visitors.

Anna walks us through a carefully crafted four-day itinerary that showcases many of the county's highlights, including the historic city of Durham, the fascinating Auckland Project, and the immersive Beamish Museum. As someone who knows the region inside and out, Anna offers a unique perspective on how to experience the best of County Durham. She also shares her top tip for anyone planning their first visit to this beautiful part of northern England.

So if you're looking to explore County Durham, this episode and episode 117 will give you all the inspiration and practical advice you need to plan an unforgettable trip.

Tune in for an unforgettable guide to exploring County Durham!
 
⭐️ Guest - Anna Unger of Northern Secrets
📝  Show Notes - Episode  122

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Chapters

• 0:04 Exploring County Durham With Anna Unger
• 12:49 Explore County Durham Castles and Museums
• 20:14 County Durham

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:04

Welcome to the UK Travel Planning Podcast. Your host is the founder of the UK Travel Planning website, Tracey Collins. In this podcast, Tracey shares destination guides, travel tips and itinerary ideas, as well as interviews with a variety of guests who share their knowledge and experience of UK travel to help you plan your perfect UK vacation. Join us as we explore the UK from cosmopolitan cities to quaint villages, from historic castles to beautiful islands, and from the picturesque countryside to seaside towns.

Speaker 2: 0:43

Hello and welcome to episode 122 of the UK Travel Planning Podcast. In this episode, I'm delighted to be joined by Anna Unger, a Blue Badge guide who lives and works in the northeast of England, to delve deeper into the wonders of County Durham. This episode is the perfect complement to episode 117 when I chatted with Michelle Gorman, the Managing Director of Visit County Durham. 117, when I chatted with Michelle Gorman, the Managing Director of Visit County Durham. While Michelle gave an insightful overview of what makes this northern county so special today, anna shares her personal love for County Durham and why it's such an enchanting destination for visitors.

Speaker 2: 1:16

In this episode, anna walks us through a carefully crafted four-day itinerary that showcases many of the county's highlights, including the historic city of Durham, the fascinating Auckland Project, the immersive Beamish Museum and, as someone who knows the region inside and out, anna offers a unique perspective on how to experience the best of County Durham. And as we wrap up, anna shares her top tip for anyone planning their first visit to this beautiful part of Northern England. So if you're looking to explore County Durham, this episode along with episode 117, will give you all the inspiration and practical advice you need to plan an unforgettable trip. As always, I start the conversation with Anna by asking her to introduce herself and share a little about her background.

Speaker 3: 1:57

So my name is Anna Unger and I am now a Blue Badge Guide for the region of the Northeast and I moved here just over 16 years ago. I met my husband in Munich in my final year at university. I was studying a very long degree of art history, English literature and classical archaeology. And I actually met him in an Irish pub and he had a very strange Northern accent and he said he was from Newcastle and I didn't really have Newcastle on my map. So he said look, they even sell beer from Newcastle here. So he bought me a bottle of Newcastle Brown Ale and that's not even made up. That's how we originally met.

Speaker 3: 2:35

And then I came and visited in a summer, August, glorious weather, and he took me all around the Northeast, showed me all the beautiful places, and then I decided to move here in January, which was a very different story. But I basically fell in love with the Northeast and I thoroughly enjoy being a guide here because it is a bit of a sort of lesser known region in the Northeast and I always try to encourage people to spend more time here and explore the beautiful sights that there are to see?

Speaker 2: 3:09

Absolutely, and me too, because obviously I hail from the Northeast. I'm originally from Northumberland and so also have a passion for promoting the Northeast and saying to people this is a region you really need to add into your itinerary when you visit the UK. So you mentioned that you're a Blue Badge Guide, so what is it that you do in terms of tours and who do you work for? What do you do?

Speaker 3: 3:28

So I work for a company called Northern Secrets and we organize anything from bespoke trips for individual visitors, so we can help put itineraries together, we can help find hotels for them two large groups that we will cater for. We can deliver step-on guides. So if you're just traveling through and you have a coach travel, you want somebody to step on and tell you a little bit about the region. We can do that. So no day is like the other. I go all the way to Berwick-upon-Tweed in the Scottish borders, all the way down to Teesdale, and I do different itineraries every day. And that's part of the beauty of this job, because you get to meet lots of different people on a daily basis and you go to all of the beautiful places that you want to show off anyway.

Speaker 2: 4:11

You know, I'm going to just ask another question as well, because you mentioned being a Blue Badge guide. So would you like to explain what is involved in becoming a Blue Badge guide?

Speaker 3: 4:20

Yeah, so that's a good question. Blue Badge guides are really the top level of guide for a region in the UK and it's quite a long course. Ours was prolonged even more due to the pandemic a couple of years ago, so I'm a spring chicken in relative terms for blue badge guiding and it's a very intense course where you learn all of the background about the whole of the UK as well as your specific region, and at the end you've got eight exams practical and theoretical exams but it really sets you up to show the best of the specific region that you're guiding in.

Speaker 2: 4:55

Absolutely. So let's talk about County Durham. Then let's talk about what makes County Durham specifically so special. For you, anna, is County Durham specifically?

Speaker 3: 5:04

so special for you, anna. So I think when I originally moved here, the only association I had with County Durham was that famous movie called Billy Elliot, where you have a coal miner's son dreaming about becoming a ballet dancer and it's set against the riots of the 80s, the year-long strike of the miners. And County Durham still today has a little bit of the stigma of being the coal mining county and we've moved on so far from that. But it is part of our heritage and something that we are now quite proud to show, and there's lots of sites where you can still see that railway heritage, that coal mining heritage. But there's so much more that County Durham has to offer nowadays. I mean starting with the city of Durham and the famous UNESCO World Heritage Site of the cathedral and the castle.

Speaker 2: 5:52

Absolutely so. Why do you think visitors to the UK should add it into their itinerary? Because traditionally and I'm going to challenge everybody to listen to this podcast now because I know traditional view is that visitors will go from London, they will go to York and then they will go to Edinburgh, and they're missing out a massive amount in between York and Edinburgh.

Speaker 2: 6:12

And so absolutely, and this is exactly what we're talking about in this podcast, what we're trying to promote. So why should and I'm always going on about this but why and I do think that visitors should add it into their itinerary?

Speaker 3: 6:24

always going on about this, but why? And I do think that visitors should add it into their itinerary. I would definitely agree with you there. We sometimes even have guests who will just stop for two or three hours on their train journey between York and Edinburgh. And, yes, if you're visiting the UK once and you want to pack everything in, those highlights will be in there. You want to see Jorvik, the, the Viking town, and you want to go to Edinburgh, but I always try to encourage people to stay a little bit longer, because County Durham is, yes, not the main attraction, but you are away from the crowds, which is sometimes something that travellers get lost in when they go to the top places, because you are in queues and you are in crowds, whereas in County Durham you won't encourage any kind of mass tourism to that. We do have a lot of visitors, but you still be able to have a authentic experience away from the crowds in County Durham.

Speaker 2: 7:16

Absolutely Okay. So let's talk about a two to three day itinerary for somebody visiting. So where would they start off and how would that look?

Speaker 3: 7:28

So, if you only have a couple of days, two or three days, I would say stop and make Durham City your base. It's really accessible. You can travel. If you're traveling by car, it's just off the A1. If you're traveling on the train, again, it's one of the most beautiful train journeys. The approach to Durham on the railway is absolutely magnificent because you see that cathedral coming into view and then there's a whole host of hotels, B&Bs in the city as well, and because it is a university city and quite a quaint city, there's lots of bars, restaurants, things to explore on foot. So I would definitely make that your base for your travels around the wider region of County Durham and then probably start off with just exploring the city itself on your first day.

Speaker 2: 8:15

Yeah, absolutely. And what would you say? The highlights would be on that first day. Obviously, you're going to mention the cathedral.

Speaker 3: 8:22

Yes, so Durham City is sitting in a little peninsula, in a loop surrounded by the River Weir, so it is a gorgeous setting itself, and one of the things that I always say to visitors first is go on the river sidewalk, follow the River we are all around that little peninsula because it offers you the most spectacular views of the cathedral, of the castle. It really sets the scene for what you're going to explore. In the town itself there is a lot of little hidden alleyways in Durham. They're called venals. They're small alleyways that are quite hidden. So don't just rush through. Go and look left and right to see whether you find one of these little Venels and see where it might take you. And there's even some hidden cafes or hidden little squares that you can find. One of the favorites for visitors is a place called Venels Cafe, great for scones and coffee and for cakes as well. And then you have to make some time, obviously, to go and see the cathedral.

Speaker 3: 9:22

It is one of the most magnificent cathedrals. It was described by the famous Scottish poet, sir Walter Scott, as a castle for the church, for the God right, and on the other half as a defense against the Scots. Because Durham County, durham is actually the only place that has the word county in it. For many years you had the influential and rich and powerful Prince Bishops in charge in County Durham and they looked after the cathedral as well as the castle, and the UNESCO World Heritage Site is unique here in that it is a twin designation. It's not just the cathedral, it's also the castle, which is part of this Norman structure, and it's mind-blowing from seeing it from afar.

Speaker 3: 10:07

As well as going inside the cathedral, you could take up the 325-step challenge to climb all the way up to the top of the central tower where you have a fantastic view of the surrounds. If you're a Harry Potter fan, it's a great way to explore some of the film locations that were in Harry Potter, because the cloister of the cathedral was used for some of the early films the first and the second film so you can go into Professor McGonagall's classroom and explore that. And then there is just a joy about roaming around the city of Durham, discovering, maybe, the indoor market, the Victorian indoor market, which still has some 40 independent traders to have a look around. And then, in the wider surrounds of Durham city, you also have a beautiful botanic garden and a tiny little priory called Finkel Priory, which is a ruin just north of the city that you can actually walk to on a longer stroll on what's known as the Camino Inglés, the English pilgrim's way to Santiago de Compostela.

Speaker 2: 11:09

Wow, that's fantastic. That sounds like a really exciting and really full first day. So what would you suggest after that Day two?

Speaker 3: 11:18

Yeah, so day two. What would you suggest after that day two? Yeah, so day two, if you want to explore a little bit the heritage of County Durham, the mining heritage and life of County Durham what it was like for centuries for people. A great day trip is just 20 minutes drive north of Durham, but you can also get there by public bus and that is the wonderful Beamish Open Air Museum. So Beamish Open Air Museum was founded to preserve the heritage that was quickly disappearing in the 1970s, 1980s, with the mines closing, and they've recreated several sites on a huge area that is connected by tramways, by historic buses, historic cars that you can go on and you have people dressed up in period costume, taking you to a 1900s town, taking you to a colliery village, and the newest attraction of Beamish Open Air Museum is actually a 1950s town.

Speaker 3: 12:17

That explores the life in more recent times and I went to visit when it opened with my children, who were most surprised at going to a little cafe where they have a jukebox and they just couldn't fathom that you needed to pay to play one record of one song, because they've grown up in an age where you can stream any kind of music on your iPhone.

Speaker 3: 12:39

I've grown up in an age where you can stream any kind of music on your iPhone and I also enjoyed going to see the 1950s hairdresser and having your hair done up in a proper 1950s style.

Speaker 3: 12:49

So it is a properly immersive experience and I would always recommend for people to go and visit Beamish and take a whole day, because it is a vast site and there's so many different things to take in. It is a vast site and there's so many different things to take in, and particularly to talk to all of the characters that are in the shops and in the different houses and locations, because they will really make this come to life for you. It is not a museum in the traditional sense where you look at things in glass boxes and have to read signs. It's an interactive museum where you experience life and you can purchase goods. You can purchase things from the bakery the confectioner's is a favourite of my children. You can see people make sweets and then go and buy them and eat them, obviously. And I also always say go and see the dentist, because you will really appreciate being born in this century when you see the methods of removing, extracting teeth back in the day.

Speaker 2: 13:44

Oh, I love Beamish, I have to say it was. I used to go quite a lot because I grew up in the seventies and early eighties, before we moved abroad, but in Northumberland, and we used to go and visit Beamish, I would say, at least once, or maybe once every couple of years from school and we always would have to sit in the school house. I always remember sitting in the classroom and it's just really good and if you want to kind of experience the history of the northeast, this is the place to go and kind of be able to immerse yourself into it and know what it was like. And I'm very close. I was.

Speaker 2: 14:17

I was talking to Michelle from the managing director of Pizzic County, durham, last month and I was saying for me I feel very close to it because my great grandfather actually moved up from the tin mines in Cornwall and then actually spent some time working in the coal mines in Durham before then eventually settling in Northumberland. So there's a strong connection to that history and I think it's just a fantastic place to go. So you visit in the UK and have an interest in history, you've got connection to the area, you're traveling on a road trip with kids. It's a perfect, perfect place to visit.

Speaker 3: 14:51

It's definitely for all ages and what I find is so. I was recently back in Bimshutmere Museum and there's always new things to discover and they've actually just opened an emigration office. So in the 19th century, early 20th century, if you wanted to emigrate, there was agencies and ways to do that, and it's astonishing how many people from County Durham actually ended up emigrating to Australia, to the US, and they've got wonderful records there that show pictures and letters, records of people who came from the mining coal mining backgrounds, but also from the lead mines in the upper Weardale, who then moved and made a new life on the other side of the world, and that's fascinating to see.

Speaker 2: 15:34

Oh, that's brilliant. So that's a fantastic full second day. So we've had a first day in the city of Durham, second day at Beamish. What about a third day, anna?

Speaker 3: 15:43

Yes, I'll challenge you to a fourth after that.

Speaker 3: 15:46

So the third day I would say, especially visitors from abroad. They always enjoy a good castle day out. And County Durham has a fabulous castle. It's your picture perfect medieval setting with a keep in the center, surrounding walls with guard towers. It's Raby Castle. And again, it's not very far from County Durham, although you might have to either get a taxi or drive there because it's not easily accessible by public buses.

Speaker 3: 16:15

And Raby Castle has just had a revamp which opened a couple of weeks ago. They've remade their walled garden. It's called the Rising and it was created by an Italian landscape designer called Giulio Jubilee. And it was named the Rising because Raby Castle was owned by a very rich and influential, noble family called the Nevels. They were sort of the arch rivals of the Percy family of Northumberland, who are the owners of Annick Castle still today, equally of Harry Potter fame. But the Nevels lost their power due to a rising the rising of the Northern Earls against Queen Elizabeth and had their land seized by the crown and had to spend the remaining days of their lives in exile.

Speaker 3: 17:03

So the Walled Garden now, as a new attraction, welcomes visitors to the Raby estate and to the castle. It's a fabulous walled garden, has an excellent exhibition space in the former stables and a cafe, stunning 200seat cafe from where you have a view out of the castle. And then surrounding Raby Castle is a deer park, 200-acre deer park where you can go for longer walks and you can see the deer roaming around the grounds of this huge parkland for families as well, because they've added a little outdoor play area called the plotters forest after the plotters of the rising of the north, where you have an outdoor play space with slides and climbing frames and things like that. So I would say, go and have a little explore of rabie castle. They do guided tours in the castle and they've got some fabulous artifacts. It's today owned by the vein family, the l of Barnard, and they've opened it up really as a visitor attraction and you can make a full day experience out of it if you want to, or you could carry on from there to go and spend the afternoon in a fabulous little market town called Barnard Castle.

Speaker 3: 18:15

It's not very far from Raby, again, 15 minutes journey onwards in the car, and Barnard Castle has been described as a gem town because it has a real sort of medieval market town, feel about it. There's lots of historic buildings, lots of independent shops, restaurants, bars. It's named after, again a Norman castle, which is a ruin today looked after by English Heritage. It has some fabulous Charles Dickens connections. Charles Dickens actually travelled to Barnard Castle to research for his novel Nicholas Nickleby Although in recent years people have been more interested in Barnard Castle because of the eye test scandal during the COVID pandemic Absolutely.

Speaker 3: 18:59

And Barnard Castle also is the home of a quite spectacular museum called the Bowes Museum. It was founded in the 19th century by John Bowes, who has links to the royal family. The Bowes family is connected with the Queen Mum, and the Bowes Museum is a building that looks as if it's been transferred from France it's a French chateau style building to Barnard Castle, and John Boers was a great art collector. He collected anything from furnishings to porcelain, fashion as well. There's some fabulous fashion that you can see through the ages there, and the biggest attraction of the Bowes Museum is a silver swan, which is an automaton that once a day will come into motion and you'll see the swan catching a little fish Wow.

Speaker 2: 19:56

That sounds cool. So those two places Rabie and then going on to Barnard Castle, that's around about a day.

Speaker 3: 20:04

You could do Rabie Castle in the morning, then go on to Barnard Castle to spend a bit of time over lunch there. You could go and see the Boers Museum in the afternoon if you're interested in art. If you want to explore a little bit more outdoors, you could carry on up the Teesdale from Barnard Castle on a scenic drive through the upper Teesdale which takes you into the North Pennines, aonb. And AONB is an area of outstanding natural beauty. It's sometimes been described as the last wilderness of Britain.

Speaker 3: 20:34

It's really remote uplands, heather moors that are in bloom now in August, and in Teesdale you have one of the most spectacular waterfalls in Britain. Tumbling down over 20 meters is a huge mass of water and high force waterfall is a short walk from the car park so it's not like an arduous walk. You can park your car up and then walk about 10-15 minutes to get to the waterfall site and those who enjoy the outdoors. You could turn that into a longer walk if you want to, but it's definitely a spectacular natural sight to see if you're traveling for the day there, and that, I think, would complete your day. Number two, depending on what your choices are whether you would like to go and see a museum, or whether you would like to go and explore the outdoors a little bit absolutely so.

Speaker 2: 21:25

I think that was day three, because day two we had, we had bemish.

Speaker 3: 21:28

So day three and now okay.

Speaker 2: 21:32

So then you mentioned there could be an optional to stay longer again, to stay, add another day. So what would we do on day four, an Anna.

Speaker 3: 22:51

So the fourth day is one of my favourite attractions now in County Durham, and it's a relatively new attraction that even people in the North East haven't heard about hugely. So the day that you'll have to plan is all based around a little place called Bishop Auckland, which is about half an hour drive southeast of Durham, and Bishop Auckland had a palace that the prince bishops those rich and influential leaders in the north, the kings in the north used originally as a hunting lodge, as a country retreat, and the castle had fallen into disrepair and needed a bit of TLC. And back in 2012, it was acquired by a hedge fund manager called Jonathan Ruffer, who turned this into a charitable trust called the Auckland Project, and he has spent to date over 200 million of his personal wealth in revamping Bishop Auckland as well as the castle. So it's really several attractions under the umbrella of the Auckland Project. For starters, you've got the fabulous castle of the Prince Bishop's, a 900-year-old castle that's been restored, with 14 staterooms, a magnificent throne room that you can go and see, and one of the largest chapels private chapels in England of the Prince Bishops there, and because the Prince Bishops have such a long history connected with faith, alongside the castle is the Faith Museum, which explores the history of faith and the influence of people over the centuries, with some fabulous artifacts, and it is a world-class I would say stunning museum, all interactive, with lots of artworks to do with faith, exploring people's attitude to religion and faith. So that is sort of the main attraction as you come into Auckland, into Bishop Auckland. But as part of the umbrella there is the wider estate at Bishop Auckland as well. Again, you've got walled gardens there that you can go and explore, including a still under construction faith garden. That's going to be finished very soon.

Speaker 3: 25:07

And Jonathan Ruffer is a great lover of the golden age art of Spain, so 17th, 18th century art of Spain. So he opened a museum in Bishop Auckland which celebrates the golden age of this art. So you've got paintings by El Greco Velazquez in there and that's called the Spanish Gallery, again an art gallery celebrating Spanish art in the remote hinterland of County Durham. And just opposite the Spanish Gallery is the Mining Art Gallery, which is the opposite end of the scale. This is miners who turned to art and made art their hobby and then their job. So you've got fantastic works by, for instance, norman Cornish there that explore the mining heritage through art in County Durham, so that you can turn that into a full day. They have um. They have ticketing which is flexible, so you can have either just one of the attractions or you can get individual tickets for the other attractions. And they also have opened a hotel as well as a self-catering apartments, and if you're staying in those, you get free entry to the attractions of the Auckland project.

Speaker 2: 26:22

Well, I'm adding that into my itinerary when I'm back in the UK, that's for sure. I'm thinking now I've got four days. I was like, okay, a couple of days would be great. But now I'm like, no, three days isn't enough, it's going to have to be four days. And also I'm just going to throw in there as well, because I know my husband is really keen is to visit the locomotion. Is it called locomotion? Yes, locomotion locomotion.

Speaker 3: 26:43

Yeah, so next year, in 2025, county durham is celebrating the 200th anniversary of the first ever steam passenger train in the world. Now, railway pioneering is something County Durham is famous for. We have some of the greatest railway engineers coming from County Durham. But initially railways weren't built to transport people. That was really an afterthought. They were built to transport the huge amounts of coal. And in 1825, one of our great engineers, george Stevenson, created this first passenger train between the cities of Stockton and Darlington. He built a fantastic locomotive called Aptly locomotion, number one, number one, and at a breakneck speed they were carrying passengers between these two towns.

Speaker 3: 27:34

And next year we're ramping up for a nine-month celebration of this first steam train carrying passengers, and because of this, the Stockton and Darlington Railway has spent quite a bit of time and money revamping some of the attractions associated with that.

Speaker 3: 27:50

Locomotion is one of the places I would recommend railway enthusiasts to visit. It is a branch of the National Museum in York and you have some 100 carriages historic trains that you can go and see there, some of the very early ones, as well as diesel engines the Deltic in 1950s, a prototype diesel engine and you also find some royal carriages, so you can see how the upper class was traveling in luxury rail travel back in the days, and again, it's a very modern and very exciting attraction that you can spend just an hour or a couple of hours and, most impressive of all, it's a free attraction. So locomotion is a free museum that you can go and explore and, as part of the Stockton and Darlington railway celebrations, you could also go and see Hope Town, a very recently opened museum in Darlington, which also hinges around the Stockton and Darlington railway, for a day out.

Speaker 2: 28:54

That's fantastic. Well, I think that's now become a five day itinerary. You can't, you cannot miss it. I'm telling you.

Speaker 3: 28:59

you need to spend more time in County Durham, Absolutely.

Speaker 2: 29:03

Absolutely Well, my husband is already. He's so excited about locomotion because he's a massive fan of the york uh railway museum itself, like he he's. Every time I go to york he disappears off there for a few hours. So he's he's already planned to go and see. I was, I was, I was saying I was talking to michelle yesterday and I was like he's already planned with. He just told me this is planned a day trip. He's actually gonna get the train, meet my brother in stockton and then they're gonna go to locom locomotion. He's actually already sort of said oh, how about my sister's partner come as well? So they're all planning a big day trip out and can't wait. So I think it's going to be fantastic. So if you're visiting the UK and you're doing a road trip or you're thinking about traveling around by car or traveling around by train, stop off in County Durham and add at least two or three days into your itinerary. Stay for longer. There's a lot to see.

Speaker 3: 29:52

Yes, and I mean obviously I've created those day trips now. But everyone, every traveler, is different, so you can easily, because the distances that you travel are relatively short. So you could combine locomotion with rabies, you could combine locomotion with high force. They are all interchangeable elements. You can create your day trip surrounding your interests, what you think suits you or your family, or whoever you're traveling with best.

Speaker 2: 30:21

Absolutely. I'm also going to throw one other place in that I want to ask you about as well, because it comes up such a lot and we get asked about it all the time, and that is the sea glass at Siam.

Speaker 3: 30:32

Yes, a lot, and we get asked about it all the time, and that is the sea glass at Siam. Yes, so Siam again. You're traveling not very far, half an hour or so from Durham city to the coast, which is a heritage coastline on the shores of County Durham. And Siam is a lovely little harbour town that was created by rich and influential coal owners in the Northeast called the Londonderrys, who actually built a little harbor there to export their goods. And Siam is famous for its sea glass because there was a lot of bottle works. One of the largest bottle works ever built was in Siam and they dumped all of the surplus glass into the North Sea. So over decades and probably hundreds of years, the sea glass is being churned by the sea. And just north of Siam is a little stretch of beach which is quite a pebbly beach and if you explore along there and go for a walk and maybe stoop a little bit and pick up some stones, you will find multicolored little pebbles of glass and that's a favorite of people to go and do.

Speaker 2: 31:32

Oh, absolutely. Well, honestly, Anna, it's just fantastic talking to you about County Durham. Honestly, I'm really excited, and I'm from the North, so I'm already always excited about visiting the Northeast. But I'm going to end the podcast with the question that I ask everybody at the end of it is what would be the one tip that you would share with anybody planning to visit County Durham for the first time?

Speaker 3: 31:52

Yeah. So what I would actually say is look at the diary and see if you can hinge your trip around going to see a show called Kinran. So I mentioned Bishop Auckland and the Auckland Project of the Prince Bishops. As part of the regeneration of Bishop Auckland, Jonathan Ruffer, the philanthropist and great recreator of Bishop Auckland, has created a charity which makes a huge world-class stage show all outdoors. So you've got a stage with the fabulous Auckland Castle in the background. You have a stage where about 8,000 people take their seats under the open night sky and then 1,000 volunteers, all from Bishop Auckland and the surrounding areas, will make history come to life.

Speaker 3: 32:42

And this show is called Kinren. It's won awards as one of the best stage shows in the UK and you have a story told of 2,000 years of history of Britain in scenes. It's quite the ride. 90 minutes is the length of the show and it ends with a spectacular display of fireworks against the night sky. And it's again a very immersive experience, quite an emotional experience for a lot of visitors and you will see anything on stage from sword fighting to geese and sheep and goats. It's such a multi-visual experience that I would definitely say go and look at the site of Kinren, which, by the way, means generations. So it is a project of generations for future generations. And it's close to my heart because I think it just shows what can be achieved when people come together and decide that they want to move forward and change the fate of a former mining town into something new. And there is usually eight, sometimes nine, shows between July and September, all on a Saturday, and you could plan your trip with the culmination of going to see Kinren.

Speaker 2: 34:05

Ah, sounds absolutely fantastic. I have to say thank you so much for coming on to the podcast this week. It's been fabulous to it's fantastic to meet you. Actually, when I was talking to you the other night I just thought, oh, you just have such a love and such a passion for County Durham and it shines through. So thank you so much for coming on to the podcast to share that with our listeners. It's been my pleasure.

Speaker 2: 34:25

Thank you very much for inviting me on the podcast thank you for tuning in to this week's episode of the UK Travel Planning Podcast. As always, show notes can be found at uktravelplanningcom. If you've enjoyed the show, why not leave us feedback via text or a review on your favourite podcast app? We love to hear from you and you never know. You may receive a shout out in a future episode, but, as always, that just leaves me to say until next week. Happy UK travel planning.