Caption

Warden Law Go Kart Track a little more than a mile west of Seaton Village on the site of the former Warden Law Quarry. Site of an Iron Age fort, there are burial mounds nearby. In 995 A.D after years of wandering the north, the carriers of St Cuthbert’s coffin came to a halt at a hill called Warden Law, the site of an Iron Age fort near Hetton to the east of Durham. Here the vehicle on which the coffin was transported came to stand still and despite the efforts of the whole congregation of followers who tried to push, the coffin would not move. Aldhun Bishop of Chester-le-Street, the leader of the congregation, committed the monks to three days of fasting and prayer in order to learn the reason why the coffin would not move. After a period of intense meditation their prayers were finally answered when St Cuthbert appeared in a vision to a monk called EADMER. St Cuthbert instructed Eadmer that the coffin should be taken to a place called DUN HOLM. The monks had not heard of Dun Holm, but may have been aware that its name meant HILL ISLAND. Dun was an Anglo-Saxon word meaning `hill’, Holm meaning island is a word of Scandinavian origin. Dun Holm was later called DURESME by the Normans and was known in Latin as DUNELM. Over the years the name has been simplified to the modern form - DURHAM. Copyright FlyingFotos www.seahamfromtheair.co.uk