Holy Island, England 2023

Date: 3rd June 2023

Travelled: 170 kms Durham to Coldstream via Holy Island   

Visited:  Holy Island (Lindisfarne)  

Stayed: Cold Stream. Free, N55.64880, W02.25420  

Budget: 12 days @ €101 per day

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It’s a beautiful sunny morning so we make an early start. We use the services and make ready for the road.

Durham was our do or don’t point. Our original plan was to spend a day or two doing the Mull of Kintyre in west Scotland, but the ferry service across the peninsula has been suspended UFN. It was supposed to recommence on the 1st. The newspapers up here are full of stories about all the tourist places suing Calmac the ferry operator. So our fall back was to continue north to one of ancient Britain most religious sites, Holy Island or Lindisfarne.

So we set the GPS and get on our way…

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Holy Island of Lindisfarne, Holy Island, Northumberland, North of Tyne, England, United Kingdom

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Visiting Holy Island or Lindisfarne does require some planning, which at times is not our strongest point. The causeway can only be crossed on the tidal window of 7 hours twice a day. So we arrive with a three hour plus window to explore and be back across the causeway to the mainland.

The monastery of Lindisfarne was established in 634 by an Irish monk named Aidan, later known as Saint Aidan, coincidentally Pam’s had an Uncle Aidan until he passed a couple of years ago. Some years later a monk named Cuthbert served here and later became Bishop of Lindisfarne in 686, Cuthbert would go on to Sainthood. According to the blurb Cuthbert is considered the most venerated religious figure in Britain. Hence the monastery ruins here are a starting and/or finishing point for pilgrims.

So a monetary or priory had stood on this site from 634 to 1536, outlasting the Vikings and William the Conqueror. It was King Henry VIII’s ‘dissolution of monasteries’ that brought monastic life here to an end.

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Our next stop is only a cemetery away, Saint Mary the Virgin Church to give its full name. A wooden church was built on the spot by Saint Aidan here in 635 but the current lovely church has been this way since 1860. It’s looking its best this morning, all flowered up for a wedding later today.

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Time and tide wait for no man so we set off for the 1 km walk across a peninsula to Lindisfarne Castle.

In the mid 16th century Lindisfarne marked the border between Scotland and England added to those problems the Vikings still occasionally raided here, so Anne Boleyn’s boyfriend Henry VIII ordered a fort be built in 1549. Eventually the border moved 10 miles up the road to Berwick and the castle outlived its military requirement.

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So come 1901 a wealthy publisher Edward Hudson purchases the castle and sets about restoring it as a holiday home. Now controlled by the National Trust we cough £8 pp for a look around.

The restoration is still magnificent even today, the furniture and fittings all very 1920 and the information panels highlight the relationship between Hudson and his long time on and off fiancée Guillermina Suggia. Adds a bit of romance to the castle’s storyline.

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So that’s it Holy Island done. We scurry back to the Hymer and make our way across the causeway with 30 minutes to spare. We drive on north another 10 miles to Berwick-on-Tweed making an unsuccessful attempt to find a parking spot. After 30 minutes of traffic snarls we bail out with a couple of inches to spare.

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So we drive on to Coldstream in Scotland for another free stop.

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Michael + Pam