Christmas Markets in Durham

Durham's Christmas market is a weekend, not a season. That is the single most important thing to get right when you plan a visit, because the city gets written about alongside Newcastle and Manchester, where the markets run for five or six weeks. Durham's runs for three days, and if you turn up on the wrong Saturday there is nothing to see.

What you get in exchange is a market in genuinely extraordinary surroundings: a craft marquee pitched on Palace Green between the cathedral and the castle, and producers trading in the cathedral's own cloisters.

The dates for 2026

Durham Christmas Festival runs Friday 4 to Sunday 6 December 2026.

It spreads across four connected sites in the World Heritage Site and the city centre below it:

• Palace Green, between Durham Cathedral and Durham Castle, which holds the Craft and Producers' Marquee
• The Cathedral Cloisters, where the regional food and drink producers trade
• Durham Market Hall on the Market Place, the Victorian indoor market
• The Market Place itself, outside

All the markets open at 9am. Closing times vary by day, so check the festival's own timings for the day you are going rather than assuming a uniform finish.

The marquee on Palace Green is ticketed

This catches people out. The Craft and Producers' Marquee on Palace Green carries over 180 stalls and it is a paid entry, with a discount for booking in advance rather than paying on the gate. Book before you travel.

Everything else is free to walk into. The Cathedral Cloisters host more than 30 regional food and drink producers, and the Market Hall's 40-odd resident businesses trade as normal with the festival crowds coming through.

Best for:

Best for: the Cloisters. A food market trading inside a Norman cathedral's covered walkway is not something you can see anywhere else in the country, and it is the part of the festival people remember.

What else is on across the weekend

Beyond the stalls, the published programme includes carolling and a Carols for All service at the cathedral, a static falconry display, storytelling, a children's entertainer, and a Father Christmas grotto.

The set piece is the Children's Lantern Parade on Sunday 6 December, which closes the festival. If you are bringing children and can only do one day, make it the Sunday.

Getting up the hill, and the free taxi

Durham's geography is the practical problem. The cathedral and Palace Green sit on a peninsula at the top of a steep climb from the Market Place, up Saddler Street and the Bailey. It is a short distance and a genuinely hard one, particularly with a pushchair or if you have any difficulty with steps and gradients.

The festival runs a free taxi service from the bottom of the Market Place up to the cathedral, which is the single most useful thing to know about visiting. Use it.

For getting into the city, the festival recommends park and ride over driving in. Durham's centre has a congestion charge on the peninsula and very little parking, and a festival weekend is the worst possible time to test it. The railway station is about ten minutes' walk from the Market Place, downhill on the way in.

The market that is open the rest of the year

If you miss the festival weekend, the city still has a proper market. Durham Market Hall on the Market Place is open Monday to Saturday, 9am to 4.30pm, closed Sunday, and it is where the city's independent traders actually are year-round: Market Hall Wines, The People's Bookshop, Bramwells Jewellers, Circle Vintage and Woven among them.

There is also a Saturday outdoor market in the Market Place, and monthly Food Producers' and Crafters' Markets. For Christmas food in particular, Claypath Deli is a five-minute walk from the Market Place and takes the pressure off a single festival weekend.

Making a day of it

The festival sites are all within a few hundred metres of one another, so the walking is short even if it is steep. Palace Green Library is on the Green itself, and the Gala Theatre on Millennium Place runs its pantomime through December, which pairs neatly with a market morning.

Crook Hall Gardens, a National Trust property about fifteen minutes' walk north along the river, is worth checking for its own festive opening if you want something quieter than the peninsula on a busy weekend.

Christmas markets within an hour

Durham's is the region's best three-day market, but it is not the only one within easy reach.

Newcastle Christmas Market is the long run rather than the weekend: Thursday 19 November to Wednesday 23 December 2026, free to browse, strung along Grey Street and Grainger Street and around the Monument, with over 70 traders and a Christmas Village on Old Eldon Square. Trains from Durham take about twelve minutes. See our guide to Christmas markets in Newcastle.

Hexham Abbey Christmas Fair is on Saturday 12 December 2026, 9am to 3pm, with hundreds of stalls indoors and out at the Abbey, run as a fundraiser. It is about an hour and a quarter from Durham by train via Newcastle.

Tynemouth Station Market trades every Saturday and Sunday, 9am to 3.30pm, with over 150 stalls under the glass roof of the restored Victorian station. It runs every weekend through December except Christmas Day and Boxing Day, and being fully indoors it is the reliable option in bad weather.

For pantomimes, light trails, Santa specials and the rest of the region's festive calendar, see Christmas in the North East.

What is not confirmed yet

Worth being straight about this. As of late September, the following are not published for 2026:

• Daily closing times for each of the four market sites
• The ticket price for the Palace Green marquee, and the advance-booking discount
• Timings for the Lantern Parade, the falconry display and the grotto
• The full trader list

Several listings sites already quote details for 2026. Where those have not come from the festival organisers, treat them as guesses. We will update this guide as the real information is published.

Know a Durham Christmas event we have missed? Get in touch via our contact page.