Durham Castle Collections

About Our Collections

Read more about each area of the collection.

Art

There are over 250 paintings in the collection at Durham Castle, including over 120 oil paintings, alongside watercolours, engravings and cartoons.

A watercolour showing the Tunstall Gallery in the Victorian period. On the right are busts and tapestries and the Norman Arch and on the left students walking up and down the gallery.

Arms and Armour

Durham Castle’s collections represent the conflicts of the last 500 years of British history.

A coloured photograph taken in the Minstrel’s Gallery, looking towards the south wall of the Great Hall. At the top of the image are the armour. Below students are studying.

Decorative Art

The collection of decorative art at Durham Castle is extremely varied. It includes personalised ceramics, ornate silverware and electroplate, and even 25 tapestries.

A coloured photograph showing the close-up detail on the plate, it includes the coat of arms for the Bishop of Durham at the centre. It is surrounded by scalloped floral detail and along the edge signs of the zodiac.

Social History

Learn more about the people who have lived in, studied at, worked in or visited Durham Castle.

A coloured photograph showing 9 pins, each pin is a different colour and shape.

History of the Museum

Learn more about the history of Durham Castle Museum.

A coloured photograph of the courtyard at Durham Castle. At the front of the image of two medieval soldiers, in the background is a tent and the Tunstall Gallery of Durham Castle.

Durham University also holds archives and special collections at Palace Green Library and additional museum collections at our Museum of Archaeology, Oriental Museum and in our Art Collection.

You can access our online database to find out more about individual objects.

Find out more about researching the collections.