Lindisfarne

Lindisfarne, or Holy Island, lies in the North Sea near Berwick upon Tweed in Northumberland. It can be reached by a mile-long walk across the causeway at low tide, or for the more dedicated visitors, posts mark the pilgrims’ route across the mudflats.

Walking across the open expanse of mudflat, surrounded by flocks of foraging wading birds whose piping calls are the only sound in this seemingly vast emptiness, with the sea unseen in the distance until it turns and rushes back across the mudflats, is a profound experience and certainly illustrates why the island was considered special.

The island’s recorded history is mainly linked to the Christians who settled here in the 7^th century, but it was considered sacred before this point. Its oldest name, Medcaut, probably derives from the Latin Medicata Insula or ‘Healing Island’. Lindisfarne is a Celtic name: Farne means land and Lindis is the name of the river which flows across the mudflats at low tide.

St Cuthbert’s Isle, just off Lindisfarne. The cross marks the former altar of the chapel known as St Cuthbert in the Sea.

King Oswald, who came to the Northumbrian throne in AD634, had converted to Christianity and arranged for a team of monks to come from Iona to convert his people. They built their monastery on Lindisfarne. Soon afterwards Oswald and his bishop, Aidan, died and the church was burnt by marauders.

A shepherd named Cuthbert had a vision of Aidan telling him to continue the bishop’s work. Cuthbert trained as a monk and began to preach. The conversion of the Northumbrians to Christianity is credited to his work. He eventually retreated to a small island off Lindisfarne where he lived in solitude for many years, and he was eventually buried in Lindisfarne’s church. The famous Lindisfarne Gospels, an illuminated manuscript containing the four gospels, was written here at this time.

Page from Lindisfarne's illuminated Gospel of St Matthew. 

Almost two centuries after Cuthbert’s death, when Vikings attacked the island, the monks abandoned the site and Cuthbert’s body was carried on the long journey to Durham where it was laid in the cathedral along with the monastery’s other sacred relics. Many places in Northumberland are linked to that journey, including St Cuthbert's Cave in the Kyloe Hills.

Following the Norman Conquest, the priory was rebuilt in typical Norman grandeur and remained a large and influential site until its closure in 1537 following Henry VIII’s Reformation.

The Norman priory, which replaced an older building in the 12^th century.