Mythical beasts take up residency at Durham Cathedral

Beasts! explores some of the animals and mythical creatures which adorn the cathedral and appear in early Christian texts.

It also attempts to recreate some of the exotic gifts given to the shrine of St Cuthbert before it was dismantled during the Reformation.

Exhibition officer Marie-Thérèse Mayne said: “The theme is beasts and its centred on the myths and legends that have fascinated people for millennia and how they have grown up around these creatures, whether real or imagined.”

The exhibition is the cathedral’s first to include loans from other museums, including the British Museum and Sunderland Museum and Winter Gardens.

Among the loaned exhibits is an elephant tooth, a 3m narwhal tusk, ostrich eggs and an ibex horn.

Ms Mayne added: “We have an inventory from 1383 which lists all the gifts given to St Cuthbert’s shrine. When people came they would have brought a gift and a lot of them would have been hanging around the shrine.

“There would have been gold and silver and expensive silks but also an elephant tooth, a unicorn horn, several griffin eggs and not one, but two griffin claws.

“All of the these things were lost in the Reformation when the shrine was dismantled but we have tried to recreate it.

“We think the unicorn horn was probably a narwhal tusk.

“The griffin eggs were probably ostrich eggs, though there is also a thought it may have been a shaved coconut.”

The griffin claw is thought to have been an ibex horn, and the one on display is believed to be one which was originally part of the shine prior to it being broken up.

Ms Mayne said: “We can’t know for sure but we think it is so we are delighted the British Museum has been willing to lend it to us.”

Also on display is a highly decorated inkwell, carved with wyvern and owls, which is owned by the cathedral and appeared in the first Harry Potter film, which was partly filmed there.

Beasts! is open until Saturday, 10 June and entry is included in tickets to Open Treasure.