Bed and breakfast availability
Bishop Auckland b&b, guesthouse and hotel accommodation

Visit Bishop Auckland and the surrounding villages and stay in bed & breakfast accommodation:

Bishop Auckland, County Durham. Although the busy commercial and social centre of the south-west Durham coalfield, Bishop Auckland is much older than the industrial Revolution and has not lost all of its country charm. it is fortunate in having a beautiful open space on its edge. This is Bishop's Park, which surrounds the castle, official residence of the Bishops of Durham for more than a century. The bishops had a country residence here from the 12^th century onwards, and the town grew up round a market at its gates. The 800-acre park, entered through an imposing 1760 gatehouse off the market place, has winding walks, lovely trees and lawns and two small streams, the Gaunless and Coundon Burn. It is open to the public as is the l8^th-century deer shelter within it. The castle and its splendid chapel. Inside the gate, a screen wall designed by James Wyatt about 1800 divides the public park from castle and gardens. The residence began as a Norman manor house and was castellated about 1300. Extensive alterations were made in the 18^th century. The chapel of St Peter is considered an architectural treasure and should not be missed. This was the former banqueting hail. Bishop Cosin converted it into a chapel after 1660 because the original chapel was pulled down by a previous occupant to erect a new mansion on the site. The chapel is late 12^th-century, with tall, wide arcades, shafts of Frosterley marble and limestone, handsome marble arches and mouldings. The elaborate roof and screens are 17^th century. Bishop Cosin died in 1672 and is buried here as he wished under a marble slab in the nave.

St Andrew's Church, well out of the town itself, at South Church, is a choice example of Early English architecture and the largest parish church in the county. It has an Anglo-Saxon cross relic from about 800 with interesting eastern motifs, a holy-water stoup made from a Roman altar, and effigies and a brass of the 14^th century.

The largest trading estate is at St Helen's Auckland, a former mining village. It is worth pausing here to visit the church. Small and yet appealing, it squats beside the road in an overgrown churchyard with a sprawl of commercial development and council houses nearby. It is almost entirely late 12^th- or early 13^th-century with simple round-arched arcades in the nave and small round-headed clerestory windows. St Helen Hall, beside the main road, is an interesting house of the 17^th and 18^th centuries.

West Auckland is an old spoiled village round a large green.

Nearby cities: Sunderland

Nearby towns: Barnard Castle, Consett, Darlington, Spennymoor, Stanhope, Wolsingham

Nearby villages: Aycliffe, Bolam, Byers Green, Coatham Mundeville, Coundon, Crook, Evenwood, Ferryhill, Fir Tree, Hamsterley, Heighington, High Etherley, Hilton, Houghton-le-Side, Hunwick, Ingleton, Kirk Merrington, Low Etherley, Middleton-in-Teesdale, Morley, New Shildon, Newton Aycliffe, Redworth, Shildon, Spennymoor, Staindrop, West Auckland, Witton le Wear

Have you decided to visit Bishop Auckland or the surrounding villages? Please look above for somewhere to stay in:

• a Bishop Auckland bed and breakfast (a Bishop Auckland B&B or Bishop Auckland b and b)
• a Bishop Auckland guesthouse
• a Bishop Auckland hotel (or motel)
• a Bishop Auckland self-catering establishment, or
• other Bishop Auckland accommodation

Accommodation in Bishop Auckland:

Find availability in a Bishop Auckland bed and breakfast, also known as B&B or b and b, guesthouse, small hotel, self-catering or other accommodation.