Current Projects
Our current focus is the development of the Fellows’ Garden. The reimagined Fellows' Garden is a purpose-built performance venue for plays and concerts, with student enrichment at its heart.
Featuring:
- Permanent all weather raised stage
- Integrated lighting and audio capabilities
- Capacity for audiences of up to 100 people
- Lift access from the barbican
- Accessible toilet facilities
- Paved walkways & hardwood bench seats
- Artwork and interpretation features
- Preservation of all mature trees
- Heritage appropriate plantings
Whether taking in a show presented by our talented student artists and performers or reaping the benefits of connecting with nature, the redeveloped Fellows’ Garden will be an enchanting and beautiful place to be. This ambitious project will allow University College to make the most of the limited available space on the bailey and provides a valuable opportunity to make Castle more physically accessible. Not only with this benefit our performing arts students’ experience, but the broader college, university, and local community by providing a wonderfully enhanced outdoor space for wellbeing and enrichment.
The total cost of this development is £800,000 of which £500,000 has already been secured. Match funding is available to allow us to reach our final £300,000 goal only until the end of 2024 and we need your support.
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North Terrace
As part of our celebrations of Durham Castle’s 950th anniversary, we launched the North Terrace Restoration Project in conjunction with the conservation and restoration of the Norman Chapel and North Range. This project was designed to support student wellbeing needs. A quiet outdoor space for reflection, reading and connecting with nature, a well-known self-care strategy, and the Castle’s North Terrace is an ideal location for such pursuits. Robust alumni fundraising has been underway for more than a year, and the project was due to be completed alongside the final stages of the university funded Norman Chapel restoration works this summer.
Because the chapel project provided unprecedented construction access to the north side of the Castle, important stone conservation and in-ground drainage work has also taken place on the north elevation. In addition, professional heritage conservation specialists have used this access to conduct a full condition survey to inform a new multi-year conservation management plan for the castle.
Sadly, it has become clear the castle’s fabric needs more repair and restoration than we knew. Thus, the next few years will involve additional restoration projects which would significantly damage if not destroy the Reading Garden. Given this new information and the University’s responsibility to repair, restore and conserve Durham Castle, we have decided it is not wise nor is it ethical to move ahead with the alumni funded North Terrace project.
In the spirit of turning lemons into lemonade, we are focusing our alumni capital project fundraising efforts solely on the Fellows’ Garden project. Donors to the North Terrace have been notified and invited to consider redirecting their gift to Fellows’ Garden.
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2022 marked Durham Castle’s 950th anniversary Read more about 950 Events