For more than 800 years Bishop Auckland was the country seat of the Prince Bishops of Durham, who ruled the county almost as kings. Auckland Castle stands at the edge of the market place, its deer park running down to the River Wear.
Since 2012 a charity called the Auckland Project has turned the old mining town into an unexpected cultural destination. Around the market place are the Mining Art Gallery, with paintings by the miners themselves, the Spanish Gallery, with Spanish Golden Age paintings, and the Faith Museum in a new wing of the castle. In summer, the night-time show Kynren retells 2,000 years of English history on a huge outdoor stage across the river.
A couple of miles west, Escomb has one of the oldest complete Anglo-Saxon churches in England.