A ST Cuthbert's Day walk is being staged today as part of the campaign to bring the Lindisfarne Gospels back to the North-East permanently.

Cultural campaigners, many of them members of the Northumbrian Association, are not content with the British Library's offer of two high quality facsimiles of the early medieval manuscripts, penned by the 7th Century monks of Lindisfarne.

Both facsimiles will be handed over for permanent show, in Durham Cathedral and at Lindisfarne Priory, in May, while the originals remain in the British Library collection.

But association members have pledged to continue their campaign to get the gospels back in the region.

Today's seven-mile walk begins at St Mary's and St Cuthbert's Church, in Chester-le-Street, at 10am, following the course of the River Wear, ending at Cuthbert's tomb in Durham Cathedral, at 3pm.