In the year 875 the great Scandinavian invasions were assuming large proportions, and among other parts of England where the Danes landed and harried the country was the coast of Northumbria. The monks fled from Lindisfarne, which had been selected by Aidan principally because of its resemblance to Iona. There was probably another reason for the choice: its neighbourhood to the stronghold of Bamborough, the seat of the Northumbrian Kings. Lindisfarne is very near to it, and naturally would be under the protection of the King who lived there. Bamborough, however, proved no protection against the Danes, who came oversea, and, landing on the coast, overran not only a great part of the North of England, but also a considerable portion of the South of Scotland. The monks, fearing lest they should be deprived of St. Cuthbert’s body and their other treasures, and of their lives as well, fled from Lindisfarne, carrying with them the body of the saint. Many churches dedicated to St. Cuthbert in these parts probably mark the spots where the monks in their journeying rested for a while. After wandering from 875 to 883, having remained for a short time at Crayke, they settled at Chester-le-Street, which was given to them by Guthred, a Danish King then reigning in Northumbria, and who had become a Christian. There the body rested, and from it the Bernician See was ruled until the removal of Bishop Aldhun and the congregation of St. Cuthbert (after a short sojourn at Ripon) to Durham in 995. The difficulties of an adequate defence probably proved to the monks that Chester-le-Street was not a suitable place for their protection. The superior position of Durham was no doubt the reason why it was selected for the site of the see. This, then, was the commencement of the church and city of Durham. In 999 Bishop Aldhun, having commenced it three years before, completed the building of a stone church, to which the body of St. Cuthbert was transferred from a wooden building (_æcclesiola_, Symeon calls it), where it had been at first placed. Of that church no part remains visible to the eye, though there are no doubt thousands of the stones belonging to it enclosed within the walls of the present church.