Cake Trails: Royal Power, Politics, and Belief at Durham Cathedral

Grab your slice of history! Join our expert-led summer tour exploring the turbulent royal history of Durham Cathedral and Peninsula, with museum tickets and complimentary cake and a beverage included.

A Right Royal History of Durham

Explore the complex, turbulent relationship between the English monarchy and the church in this edition of Cake Tails – a new series of guided historic walks by Iles Tours. On this expert led tour of Durham’s picturesque twelfth-century Cathedral discover the site’s many lives as a centre for Anglo-Saxon royal devotion, a psychological weapon in the Norman conquest of England’s Christian population from 1066, and a stage for the violent revolution in belief instituted by the Tudor dynasty. Highlights include William the Conqueror’s reportedly panicked departure to London after receiving a hot flash – taken as divine punishment for bad behaviour at the Shrine – on a visit in 1072.

Cake Trails

Step into history with our trained archaeologists and historians this summer, as they guide you through the region’s most fascinating historic sites, events, and people on our new series of walking tours, from ruthless royals to the women persecuted as witches in the chaos of the English Civil War.

Let them eat cake!

With a maximum of ten tickets available per event and complimentary cake and a hot beverage at a local tearoom with your guide concluding each two-hour walk, this is a fantastic event for those wanting to discover history within a more informal, conversational atmosphere.

Booking Information & FAQs

Tour Start: Tours start at 11.30am and finish at approximately 2.00pm, before moving to a nearby tearoom.

Meeting Point: Your guide will meet you on Palace Green. More information will be provided in advance of the event.

Duration: The tour is approximately 2 1/2 hours in length followed by cake and a hot beverage.

Inclusions: Access to key sites on our tours, including Durham Cathedral's museum, and tearoom refreshments are included in the ticket price. 

Access: The tour covers Palace Green, a portion of South Bailey, the College, and the Cathedral interior. While the Cathedral is fully accessible, the Bailey is cobbled and may prove somewhat challenging for wheelchair users. 

Refund Policy: Due to the nature of the tour, 100% refunds of the ticket price will be given for bookings cancelled 7 or more days before the event. 50% refunds will be given for bookings cancellations made more than 2 days and less than 7 days before the event.

About Iles Tours

Iles Tours is a five-star historic tour group specialising in small-group, guided visits to historic sites in the North East of England and Southern Scotland. Founded by archaeologist and historian Alex Iles, our guides are experts in their fields with formal training in historical and archaeological research, and our tours are consistently rated five-stars on TripAdvisor and Google Reviews. For more, see ilestours.co.uk.