Holy Island

 

or Lindisfarne (lĭn'dĭsfärn) , off the coast of Northumberland, NE England. At low tide the island is connected with the mainland by a stretch of sand. It is partly cultivated, and tourism and fishing are important. A church and monastery, built in 635 under St. Aidan, represented the first establishment of Celtic Christianity in England. Saint Cuthbert was the most famous of the bishops of Holy Island. The settlement was burned by the Danes in 793 but rebuilt. When the Danes invaded in 875, the monks fled, wandering for eight years until they settled at Chesterle-Street in 883. The bishopric was maintained for 112 years there and moved to Durham in 995. A Benedictine priory was set up on the island in 1083 by monks from Durham. Remains of a church and of an early 16th-century castle are there. The Lindisfarne Gospels or Book of Durham is an illuminated Latin manuscript of the Gospels, now housed in the British Museum. It was written at Holy Island before 700; an Anglo-Saxon gloss was added at Durham in the 10th cent.

Lindisfarne (grid reference NU125421, 55°40′40″N, 1°47′42″W), (variant spelling, Lindesfarne), is a tidal island off the north-east coast of England. It is sometimes known as Holy Island, but several different islands around the British coastline also share this affectionate name.

A causeway connects the island to the mainland of Northumberland, though it is flooded twice a day by tides — something well described by Sir Walter Scott:

For with the flow and ebb, its style

Varies from continent to isle;

Dry shood o'er sands, twice every day,

The pilgrims to the shrine find way;

Twice every day the waves efface

Of staves and sandelled feet the trace.

According to the 2001 census it had a usual population of 162.

Nature reserve

Large parts of the island, and all of the adjacent inter-tidal area, are protected as Lindisfarne National Nature Reserve to help safeguard the internationally important wintering bird populations. Species for which the reserve is important include Pale-bellied Brent Goose, Wigeon, Teal, Pintail, Merlin, Dunlin, Bar-tailed Godwit and many others. The situation on the east coast also makes it a good place for observing migrating birds arriving from the east, including large numbers of Redwing and Fieldfare, and also scarcer Siberian birds including regular annual Yellow-browed Warblers. Rare species such as Radde's Warbler, Dusky Warbler and Red-flanked Bluetail have all occurred on Holy Island. Altogether, a total of almost 300 species have been recorded on the Island and adjacent reserve. With the large number and variety of birds present, the area is very popular with bird watchers, particularly in the Autumn and Winter. Grey seals are frequent visitors to the rocky bays at high tide.

History

The monastery of Lindisfarne was founded by Irish born Saint Aidan, who had been sent from Iona off the west coast of Scotland to Northumbria at the request of King Oswald around AD 635. It became the base for Christian evangelising in the North of England and also sent a successful mission to Mercia. Monks from the community of Iona settled on the island. Northumberland's patron saint, Saint Cuthbert, was a monk and later Abbot of the monastery, and his miracles and life are recorded by the Venerable Bede. Cuthbert later became Bishop of Lindisfarne.

At some point in the early 700s the famous illuminated manuscript known as the Lindisfarne Gospels, an illustrated Latin copy of the Gospels of Mark, Luke, Matthew and John, was probably made at Lindisfarne and the artist was probably Eadfrith, who later became Bishop of Lindisfarne. Sometime in the second half of the tenth century a monk named Aldred added an Anglo-Saxon (Old English) gloss to the Latin text, producing the earliest surviving Old English copies of the Gospels. The Gospels were illustrated in an insular style containing a fusion of Celtic, Germanic and Roman elements; they were probably originally covered with a fine metal case made by a hermit called Billfrith.

In 793 a Viking raid on Lindisfarne caused much consternation throughout the Christian west, and is now often taken as the beginning of the age of Viking raids. A very famous passage in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle reads:

In this year fierce, foreboding omens came over the land of Northumbria. There were excessive whirlwinds, lightning storms, and fiery dragons were seen flying in the sky. These signs were followed by great famine, and on January 8th of the same year, the ravaging of heathen men destroyed God's church at Lindesfarne.

Eventually the monks fled the island (taking with them the body of St Cuthbert, which is now buried at the Cathedral in Durham). The bishopric was transferred to Durham in AD 1000. The Lindisfarne Gospels now reside in the British Library in London, somewhat to the annoyance of some Northumbrians. The priory was re-established in Norman times as a Benedictine house and continued until its suppression in 1536 under Henry VIII.

Present day

The island is within the Northumberland Coast Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The monastery is now a ruin in the care of English Heritage, who also run a museum/visitor centre nearby. The neighbouring parish church (see below) is still in use.

Lindisfarne also has the small Lindisfarne Castle, based on a Tudor fort, which was refurbished in the Arts and Crafts style by Sir Edwin Lutyens (who also designed the island's Celtic-cross war-memorial on the Heugh) and has a garden created by Gertrude Jekyll. The castle, garden and nearby limekilns are in the care of the National Trust and open to visitors.

Turner, Thomas Girtin and Charles Rennie Mackintosh all painted on Holy Island.

Lindisfarne had a large lime burning industry and the kilns are among the most complex in Northumberland. There are still some traces of the jetties by which the coal was imported and the lime exported close by at the foot of the crags. Lime was quarried on the Island and the remains of the wagon way between the quarries and the kilns makes for a pleasant and easy walk. This quarrying flourished in the mid-19th century during the Industrial Revolution when over 100 men were thus employed. Crinoid columnals extracted from the quarried stone and threaded into necklaces or rosaries became known as St Cuthbert's beads.

Holy Island was considered part of the Islandshire unit along with several mainland parishes. This came under the jurisdiction of the County Palatine of Durham until the Counties (Detached Parts) Act 1788.

Lindisfarne was mainly a fishing community for many years, with farming and the production of lime also of some importance. Tourism grew steadily throughout the twentieth century, and it is now a popular place with visitors — sometimes a little too popular, as space and facilities are limited. By staying on the island while the tide cuts it off (time permitting) the non-resident visitor can experience the island in a much quieter mood, as most day visitors leave when the tide is rising again. It is possible, weather and tide permitting, to walk at low tide across the sands following the older crossing line known as the Pilgrims' Way and marked with posts: it also has refuge boxes for the careless walker, in the same way as the road has a refuge box for those who have left their crossing too late. Please see the safety note below.

A popular delicacy on the island is crab sandwiches, which are sold to tourists at many shops and cafés.

Recently Lindisfarne has become the centre for the revival of Celtic Christianity in the North of England; a former minister of the church there, David Adam, is a well-known author of Celtic Christian books and prayers. Following from this, Lindisfarne has become a popular retreat centre, as well as holiday destination.

The Holy Island of Lindisfarne is well known for mead. In the mediæval days when monks inhabited the island, it was thought that if the soul was in God's keeping, the body must be fortified with this elixir of herbs and honey, the wine bequeathed to posterity as Lindisfarne Mead. The monks have long vanished, but their spirit lingers in this aphrodisiac whose exact recipe remains a secret of the family still producing it. Lindisfarne mead is produced at St Aidan's Winery, and sold throughout the UK and elsewhere.

Holy Island was featured on the television programme Seven Natural Wonders as one of the wonders of the North. The Lindisfarne Gospels have also featured on television among the top few Treasures of Britain. It also features in a new ITV Tyne Tees programme Diary of an Island which started on 19th April 2007 and on a DVDof the same name.

Safety

Visitors wishing to walk between the mainland and the island are urged to keep to the marked path, check tide times and weather carefully, and seek local advice if in doubt. Visitors driving should pay close attention to the timetables prominently displayed at both ends of the causeway and where the Holy Island road leaves the A1 Great North Road at Beal. The causeway is generally open from about 3 hours after high tide until 2 hours before the next high tide, but there is no substitute for checking the timetables for a specific date, and the period of closure may extend during stormy weather.

Lindisfarne in culture

In 1972, poet William Irwin Thompson named his Lindisfarne Association after the monastery on the island.

The Lindesfarne Community is a network of people, communities, churches and groups committed to the idea of "new monasticism" .

On film

Lindisfarne (particularly the castle) is the setting of the Roman Polanski film Cul-de-Sac (1966) with Donald Pleasence and Lionel Stander, shot entirely on location there. The island is semi-fictionalised into "Lindisfarne Island" and the castle is "Rob Roy". There is no village. The tide rises round a car which is stuck on the causeway; also featured are the characteristic sheds made from local fishing boats, inverted and cut in half. These may still be seen on the island.

In novels

Lindisfarne is referred to as The Holy Isle in Nancy Farmer's book "The Sea of Trolls," which also references the Norse invasion of Lindisfarne.

Lindisfarne plays a role in The Consciousness Plague, a 2002 science fiction/mystery novel by Paul Levinson.

It is also mentioned in passing in "Spirits White As Lightning", part of the Bedlam's Bard fantasy series by Mercedes Lackey & Rosemary Edghill.

It also plays an important role in Bernard Cornwell's "Saxon Tales".

Lindisfarne plays a key role in "Conqueror", the second book of the Time's Tapestry series by Stephen Baxter.

A thinly-disguised version of Lindisfarne is the setting for the New Bridge to Lyndesfarne quartet of modern fantasy novels by Trevor Hopkins.

The novel "Wolfskin" by Juliet Marillier takes place partially in a slightly altered version of ancient Lindisfarne.

In music

• Lindisfarne, a British folk/rock band (1969–2003).
• The German heavy metal band Stormwarrior wrote a song called "Lindisfarnel" about the Viking raid in AD 793.
• The Norwegian metal band Enslaved also released a song titled after the invasion, called "793 (Slaget Om Lindisfarne)".
• The Belgian folk/power/black metal band Ancient Rites has a song "Lindisfarne (Anno 793)" on their 2001 album Dim Carcosa.
• The Celtic Christian progressive rock band Iona has a song called "Lindisfarne" on its album Journey into the Morn released in 1995.
• The Polish black/death metal band Behemoth has a song "From Horned Lands To Lindisfarne" on its 1994 "... From The Pagan Vastlands" demo.
• The German power metal band Rebellion has a song on their 2005 album Sagas of Iceland — The History of the Vikings Volume 1 called "In Memorandum Lindisfarnae".
• The 40 part choral motet "Love You Big as the Sky" by British composer Peter McGarr is subtitled "a Lindisfarne Love Song".

External links

• The island's own web site
• Lindisfarne Guide on VisitNorthumberland.com - Includes Video of the Holy Island of Lindisfarne
• A year on Holy Island - the Islanders' story
• Lindisfarne Holy Island Safe Crossing Times 2008
• Lindisfarne Holy Island Safe Crossing Times 2007
• Photographs and Description
• Lindisfarne Island Virtual Tour
• Panoramic video of the view from St Cuthbert's isle

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