Visiting Holy Island (Lindisfarne)
Article Contents
In this post we recount our first visit to Holy Island in Northumberland. In it, we give our impressions of the island and the sites we visited. We finish with a list some suitable places of accommodation and a review of our own personal experience of where we stayed.
Lorna x
We’ve always considered ourselves very lucky to live just a two hour drive from Northumberland, with its dark skies, sweeping landscapes and forbidding castles (now made famous by the Harry Potter films).
One place in Northumberland that we had always meant to visit on our travels but had never got around to was Lindisfarne, better known as Holy Island.
Cut off from the British mainland twice daily by the sea, Holy Island is a place steeped in natural beauty and ancient history. So, in 2024, I decided to treat my historian husband to a two night stay to mark his milestone 60th birthday.
1. Where is Lindisfarne on a map?
Lindisfarne is located off the northeast coast of England, in Northumberland. It’s a tidal island, meaning it is cut off from the mainland at high tide, only becoming accessible at low tide by way of a causeway, a unique feature that only adds to its mystique. But it’s pretty easy to get to from just about anywhere in the UK. Use the map below to plan your route.
2. Lindisfarne tide times
A note of caution to anyone planning a visit to Holy Island.. Access is strictly dependent on the tides, which change daily. Rising sea water can rapidly cover the causeway (the only road to the island), making drowning a very real danger for visitors who become stranded.
As the saying goes, time and tide wait for no one and up to 20 rescues a year are made by the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) due to visitors not sticking to Lindisfarne’s safe crossing times, which are widely publicised.
3. The Ship Inn Holy Island
We made it to Holy Island later than planned at around 6.30 pm (due to our car breaking down en route). It was dark by now and misty too, and even though we were still within the safe-crossing time, driving over the darkened causeway was a strange and unnerving experience, with the sea lapping up on either side and only our headlights guiding us to our destination.
We’d decided to book into the Ship Inn for our two night stay on the island, having read plenty of positive reviews and we were not disappointed.
It had a charming and cosy interior with a warm and welcoming atmosphere with friendly staff. Our room was pretty nice too, uncluttered and functional, with a large en suite bathroom. The food was excellent (we both had the Beef & Ale Pie), which was just what we needed after a long day and an eventful journey.
Several drinks later, we hit the hay and enjoyed the best night’s sleep we’d had in a long time.
4. What to see on Lindisfarne
The next morning, we awoke to a pleasant, sunny October day. After a hearty Full English Breakfast, which was accompanied by tea, toast and various jams and preserves, we stepped out into the picturesque Lindisfarne village.
The first thing we noticed was the quiet.. Apart from a few local vehicles, the island was blissfully free of cars and other traffic and it was lovely to be able to hear birdsong without it being obliterated by the din of cars and buses, as in most towns and cities.
The Lindisfarne Centre
Everything on Holy Island is just a short walk away and, in our case, the Lindisfarne Heritage Centre (the first thing on our bucket list) turned out to be on the same street as our B&B!
The centre is easy to miss and, from the outside, looks more like a gift shop than a museum. One of its most fascinating exhibits is on the Lindisfarne Gospels, a renowned illuminated manuscript created around the year 700. Although the original manuscript is housed in the British Library, the museum displays a high-quality facsimile and offers interactive displays on the manuscript’s art, symbolism, and craftsmanship.
In addition to the Gospels, the museum covers the Viking raids that shaped Lindisfarne’s history, the lives of saints like Aidan and Cuthbert and artefacts from the island’s monastic past. There’s also a pretty decent gift shop.
Church of St. Mary the Virgin
The next thing on our bucket list was the medieval Church of St. Mary the Virgin, the oldest building on the island.
The church is open daily from 11am to 4pm for visits and private prayer and is free to enter (though donations are always welcome). Elsewhere on this blog, we recount our experience on a 12 week stained glass course, so we were eager to view St. Mary’s beautiful stained glass windows, which were amazing.
Fenwick Lawson—The Journey
Another main attraction in St. Mary’s is an incredible elm wood sculpture, entitled The Journey (1999), created by renowned northeast sculptor, Fenwick Lawson, depicting six hooded monks carrying away the coffin of St Cuthbert.
Cuthbert was the Bishop of Lindisfarne from 684 till his death in 687 and was buried on the island until 875 when the monks abandoned the island due to Viking raids. His coffin was transferred to Durham Cathedral, where it remains to this day.
Lindisfarne Priory
The Lindisfarne Priory is a must-see historic site for anyone who has the slightest interest in history (as we do!). Entry costs £7.70 per adult, which you pay at the Lindisfarne Priory Museum.
Not a very big museum, but it does have some fascinating Christian and Anglo-Saxon artefacts, including Britain’s oldest prayer bead necklace, an Anglo-Saxon gaming counter and bits of a knitted woollen sleeve (one of the earliest examples of knitting in Europe). There’s also a spearhead, the 9th-century “Viking Domesday” stone, and 21 runic name stones engraved with the names of Lindisfarne’s Anglo-Saxon locals.
Both museum and priory are run by English Heritage, so we took the opportunity to become members, which would get us free access to the priory and over 400 amazing historic places that EH manage and maintain.
The priory itself is amazing, even if it is a ruin. We’d learned earlier in the museum that the priory had been a victim of Henry VIII’s so-called “Dissolution of the Monasteries” in 1537, after which it fell into ruin.
Looking at some of the other buildings on Holy Island, it isn’t difficult to see where all the stone went!
We could have wandered around the place for hours, trying to imagine the monks going about their daily lives. The views out to the coast were pretty special too, with Lindisfarne Castle (our next destination) in the distance, adding to the history of the place.
For me, the priory was an amazing experience, and the visit would have been even better had I not tripped and gone arse-over-tit on the way out! But, hey-ho..
Lindisfarne Castle
The castle is an imposing historic fortress on top of a giant hill called Beblowe Crag. My fall made the trek up to the castle a bit of a struggle, as I had landed heavily and painfully on hard stones ðŸ˜, but thankfully, I did manage to get to the top, up the steep granite stairs without going over again..
Built in the 16th century, Lindisfarne Castle was built to serve as a Tudor garrison to guard against Scottish invasions. In the early 20th century, however, it was purchased by an English toff called Edward Hudson, who bought it as his country residence (that’s a holiday home to you and me!).
Even though much of the castle was heavily renovated and added to by Sir Edward in the late 19th century, visiting the castle was still like stepping back in time.
The views from the ramparts were breathtaking.. The tide was in by now, so the island was cut off again, and it felt quite eerie looking back across the bay, with the sea between us and the English mainland. To the south, we could just about see Bamburgh Castle in the distance, shrouded in mist.
Looking north, we could see the whole village of Lindisfarne, its quaint stone cottages and cobbled streets now cut off by the sea.
At the end of our visit, we headed back into the village to explore some of the island’s charming little gift shops, of which there are a surprising number for such a small place. Many of these shops are converted cottages, which just adds to the charm of them.
Here are just a few:
- St. Aidan’s Winery/Lindisfarne Mead: Famous for its traditional mead, this shop is a must-visit for a taste of the island’s history.
- Lindisfarne Scriptorium: A treasure trove for art lovers, this shop specialises in intricate, spiritual designs inspired by the Lindisfarne Gospels. You’ll find beautifully crafted prints, cards, and gifts.
- Celtic crafts: A boutique gift shop that captures the essence of Lindisfarne, featuring handmade jewellery, ornaments and stained glass by local artisans.
5. Accommodation on Holy Island
As said earlier, we stayed at The Ship Inn, a charming little pub with great food, friendly staff and a selection of local ales. But, if a pub stay is not for you, there are a number of holiday cottages for rent on Lindisfarne that have good reviews on booking.com
Holiday cottages to rent on holy island
7. Conclusion
As said earlier in this post, we’ve always considered ourselves very lucky to live just a two hour drive from Northumberland and we can now cross off our bucket list the Holy Island of Lindisfarne.
Would we revisit? Definitively, if only for the profound sense of peace that settles over the island as the tide cuts it off from the world, but also for the history of the place, not all of which we got to see.
And, of course, we’d go back for the warmth of the locals, the charm of the small shops and the warm and welcoming atmosphere of our digs at the Ship Inn.
