A TENTH Century trek by monks carrying a northern saint’s remains to his final resting place will be recreated as part of St Cuthbert’s Festival, next month.

The festival is among the biggest celebrations of the year at Durham Cathedral, built as the shrine to the revered 7th Century Bishop of Lindisfarne.

It will be kick-started with the now annual guided walk, staged by the Northumbrian Association, from Chester-le-Street to Durham, the journey taken by the monks from Lindisfarne, carrying Cuthbert’s coffin in 994AD.

The festival, on Saturday, March 18, marks the official saint’s day of St Cuthbert, the day of his death, in 687AD, aged 53.

When the cathedral was later built it was to serve as his final resting place and shrine, ensuring that St Cuthbert is forever connected to Durham and the North-East.

The walk is symbolic of the arrival of Cuthbert’s body and relics at Durham.

It begins at St Mary’s and St Cuthbert’s Church, in Chester-le-Street, at 9.30am on Saturday March 18, and proceeds along an approximate eight-mile route to Durham.

It will end with a procession of the St Cuthbert Banner, commissioned by the Northumbrian Association, from Durham’s Market Place to the cathedral.

The banner and walkers will be formally ‘welcomed’ into the cathedral, before continuing to the Shrine of St Cuthbert.

This year the walkers carrying the banner, accompanied by Dean of Durham, the Very Reverend Andrew Tremlett, will be joined for the procession by an array of special guests.

A replica of St Cuthbert’s coffin will be carried by six ‘monks’, led by a Northumbrian piper and drummer, and Durham’s Mayor, councillor Eddie Bell, supported by his bodyguard of pikemen, before being formally ‘welcomed’ at the cathedral.