- Location: Northumberland
- Opening times: Dependent on tides
- Entry: Island entry free, but entry fees apply to several attractions
- Access: Car parking (charge)
There is something quite magical about crossing the causeway to Lindisfarne, in knowing you are travelling on something quite transitionary. Right now, the black ribbon of roadway stands above the sands, connecting the tidal island to the mainland like the Bifrost bridge of legend anchored mighty Asgard to the Nine Realms. However, the sand never quite loosens its grip on the tarmac, and the water will soon reclaim it. By four o’clock this afternoon, this road will have disappeared beneath the waves, and Holy Island will truly be an island again. I will be back on the mainland by then, but although the causeway was always available to me there is still a pleasing sense of disconnect from the modern world on Lindisfarne.
Note: Before travelling to Lindisfarne, it is essential to check the tide times. By all accounts, the tide roars in with a vengeance, and one wouldn’t want to spend several hours stranded on one of the two refuge stations, which are little more than raised wooden platforms.
After joining with the island, the road skirts the southern edge of the Snook, where some people are already getting away from it all, hunkering down for the day amidst the dunes and grassy hillocks. I drive on to the large car park at Chare Ends, just outside the village, which will be the initial destination of most visitors to the island. It is all but empty when I arrive just after 9am, but by lunchtime it will be mobbed.
The island has two main sights, the ruin of Lindisfarne Priory and Lindisfarne Castle. I head for the priory first, a stone structure built in the century after the Norman Conquest. The priory is managed by English Heritage, and there is a charge to enter (2023 prices are £9.50 per adult and £5.50 per child up to 17 years). This gives access to the priory ruins, the Church of St. Mary, and a small but excellent exhibition dedicated to the Anglo-Saxon community that served an earlier monastery founded by Aidan in 635 CE. It is this monastery that lent the island its ‘holy’ epithet, as it counted such important Anglo-Saxon saints as Aidan, Cuthbert, Eadfirth, and Eadberht amongst its bishops, and it was here too the illuminated masterpiece now known as the Lindisfarne Gospels was created, probably under the direction of Eadfirth. Because of its association with these saints, Lindisfarne became a place of pilgrimage unrivalled in Britain until Thomas Becket was murdered in Canterbury Cathedral in 1170.
This monastery’s golden age came to an end on 8 June 793, when Lindisfarne was attacked by Vikings. It was their first significant attack on Western Europe, ushered in the Viking Age, and sent shockwaves around the Christian community: why did God or Cuthbert not repel the invaders? The surviving monks fled, taking with them Cuthbert’s remains. It would be over a hundred years before they settled down, but when they did they built a new shrine to Cuthbert, and it was around this the mighty walls of Durham Cathedral sprang. Cuthbert remains interred there today, along with the head of King Oswald of Northumbria, who first invited Aidan to his kingdom and gifted him and his companions Lindisfarne on which to build their monastery.
For a long time, Aidan’s monastery was believed to occupy the same site as the Norman priory, but archaeological evidence unearthed between 2016 and 2018 suggests that the earlier settlement could have been located on the Heugh, a small ridge south of the priory ruins. From here, the small islet known as St. Cuthbert’s Island can be seen just offshore. After some of his reforms proved unpopular, Cuthbert lived the life of a hermit here, before retiring to a life of further solitude on the more remote island of Inner Farne.
Across the harbour, perched on a volcanic mound, is Lindisfarne Castle, which is not only Holy Island’s defining image but also one of the most recognisable and photographed castles in the UK. It was built in the 1550s using material from the priory, which had been destroyed during Henry VIII’s Dissolution of the Monasteries, and served as a military garrison up until the late 1800s.
In 1901 the lease was taken over by Edward Hudson, founder of the magazine Country Life in 1897 and which is still being published today. Hudson employed two of his magazine’s most celebrated contributors, architect Edwin Lutyens and horticulturist Gertrude Jekyll, to reshape the castle into his holiday home. Lutyens remodelled the building into what we see today, while Jekyll took charge of the landscape; her walled garden was restored to her original planting plan in 2002 – 2006. And yes, Robert Louis Stevenson did pinch her surname for his infamous doctor.
The castle and the garden have been in the care of the National Trust since 1944, and are open to the public (see NT website for times). Apart from being able to admire the work of both Lutyens and Jekyll, there are terrific views from the upper battery across the harbour to the priory, and to Bamburgh Castle six miles beyond. At this time of writing, admission is £8.50 per adult and £4.25 for a child.
Destination or Diversion?
I have been to Holy Island twice in the past year and still haven’t seen it all. Next time I would like to visit it by walking across the ancient approach known as the Pilgrim’s Way, which is marked by large poles in the sand. This is a completely different route from taking the causeway, so anyone thinking of doing the same should be aware that the tide times are different for each. I also want to explore the wilder north side, taking in Emmanual Head, Sandham Bay, and Coves Haven, so I think I will book accommodation, which will allow me to experience a much quieter Lindisfarne once the day trippers have left.
In other words, it is a destination, and a very popular one at that. The island has a population of less than 200 people, but is visited by over 650,000 tourists every year.
