View of the Tower of London showing the Traitors' Gate

The Tower of London, another Norman building. Ranulph Flambard, the Prince Bishop of Durham who oversaw much of the building of Durham Cathedral was the first person to escape from the Tower in 1101.

© Viki Male

Tower of London

World Heritage Sites in the UK cover a broad thematic range, including archaeological sites, seats of power, industrial sites, natural sites, sites related to the early Christian Church, and 18th century ensembles.  

The first sites to be inscribed in the UK, in 1986, were: 

  • The Castles and Town Walls of King Edward in Wales
  • Durham Cathedral and Castle
  • Giant’s Causeway and the Causeway Coast
  • St Kilda
  • Stonehenge & Avebury
  • Studley Royal Park and the Ruins of Fountains Abbey
  • Ironbridge Gorge. 

More information on each of Britain's UK sites can be found by clicking on the images in the gallery above, and from World Heritage:UK.

The two nearest World Heritage Sites to Durham are Hadrian's Wall and Fountain’s Abbey and Studley Royal.

Tentative Sites

Every year, each country has the right to put forward one site from its tentative list for consideration by UNESCO.

In 2011, the UK put forward the twin Monastery of Wearmouth-Jarrow, the place where the Venerable Bede, now buried in Durham Cathedral, lived and worked.

You can find out more about the other sites proposed by the UK for the World Heritage List on the UK Tentative Sites list.

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