St Cuthbert’s
Cave or Cuddie’s Cave in Northumberland is a natural rocky overhang rather than
a true cave.
St Cuthbert
was a Christian monk who spent years living on the island of Lindisfarne or
Holy Island, off the Northumberland coast near Berwick-on-Tweed. His remains
were kept there until AD875, when marauding Danes attacked the island. The
monks carried the precious relics to Durham, resting for a night at this cave, thus
giving it its name.
Other local
traditions link the cave to a Border Reiver or robber, who camped in the cave
and whose ghost haunts the area. Also associated with the area is a mischievous
being called the Dunnie, who amongst other things would overturn furniture in
the night and shapeshift as a horse, to the chagrin of the ploughman who
mistakenly harnessed him.
The long walk
to this place today, through empty woodland and fields, certainly has a
slightly sinister feel to it. It’s easy to see how those traditions developed.
View from St
Curhbert’s Cave.
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