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Lindisfarne (variant spelling, Lindesfarne) (Lindisfarne) is a tidal island off the north-east coast of Englandmarker also known as Holy Island, the name of the civil parish. The name Lindisfarne derives from Farne meaning "retreat" and Lindis, a small tidal river adjacent to the island. It has a population of 162.

History

Medcaut

The island of Lindisfarne appears under the Old Welsh name Medcaut in the ninth-century Historia Brittonum. Following up on a suggestion by Richard Coates, Andrew Breeze proposes that the name ultimately derives from Latin Medicata (Insula) "Healing (Island)", owing perhaps to the island's reputation for medicinal herbs. The Historia Brittonum recounts how in the sixth century, Urien, prince of Rheged, besieged the Angles led by Theodoric at the island for three days and three nights.

Monastery

The monastery of Lindisfarne was founded by Irishmarker born Saint Aidan, who had been sent from Ionamarker off the west coast of Scotland to Northumbriamarker 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 Merciamarker. Monks from the community of Iona settled on the island. Northumberlandmarker'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.
Aidan of Lindisfarne, from the Lindisfarne Gospels
At some point in the early 700s the famous illuminated manuscript known as the Lindisfarne Gospels, an illustrated Latin copy of the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, was made probably at Lindisfarne and the artist was possibly 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.

Vikings

In 793, a Viking raid on Lindisfarne caused much consternation throughout the Christian west, and is now often taken as the beginning of the Viking Age. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle records:

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 the ravaging of heathen men destroyed God's church at Lindesfarne.


The more popularly accepted date for the Viking raid on Lindisfarne is June 8; Michael Swanton, editor of Routledge's edition of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, writes "vi id Ianr, presumably [is] an error for vi id Iun (June 8) which is the date given by the Annals of Lindisfarne (p. 505), when better sailing weather would favour coastal raids."
The ruins of Lindisfarne Priory, by Thomas Girtin, 1798
Alcuin, an English monk of that period, noted:

Never before has such terror appeared in Britain as we have now suffered from a pagan race.
.
.
.The heathens poured out the blood of saints around the altar, and trampled on the bodies of saints in the temple of God, like dung in the streets.


Viking raids in 875 led to the monks fleeing the island with St Cuthbert's bones (The bones of St Cuthbert are now buried at the Cathedralmarker in Durhammarker). The bishopric was transferred to Durham in AD 1000. The Lindisfarne Gospels now reside in the British Librarymarker in Londonmarker, somewhat to the annoyance of some Northumbrians. The priory was re-established in Norman times in 1093 as a Benedictine house and continued until its suppression in 1536 under Henry VIII.

Sir Walter Scott

A causeway connects the island to the mainland of Northumberlandmarker and is flooded twice a day by tides – something well described by Sir Walter Scott:

Present day

The island is within the Northumberland Coastmarker 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 Castlemarker, based on a Tudor fort, which was refurbished in the Arts and Crafts style by Sir Edwin Lutyens for the editor of Country Life, Edward Hudson. Lutyens also designed the island's Celtic-cross war-memorial on the Heugh.One of the most celebrated gardeners of modern times, Gertrude Jekyll (1843-1932), laid out a tiny garden just north of the castle in 1911.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 Islandshiremarker unit along with several mainland parishes. This came under the jurisdiction of the County Palatine of Durham until the Counties Act 1788.

Lindisfarne was mainly a fishing community for many years, with farming and the production of lime also of some importance.

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 Lindisfarne Mead. The monks have long vanished, and the mead's recipe remains a secret of the family which still produces 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 an ITV Tyne Tees programme Diary of an Island which started on 19 April 2007 and on a DVD of the same name.
Lindisfarne seen from the mainland


Nature reserve

Large parts of the island, and all of the adjacent intertidal 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 Siberianmarker 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.

Tourism

Tourists crossing Pilgrim's Way
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.A popular delicacy on the island is crab sandwiches, which are sold to tourists at many shops and cafés.

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 Roadmarker 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.

Trivia in modern culture

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

The Lindisfarne 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.

The final episode of second series of the TV series Cold Feet was filmed in Lindisfarne Castle.

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.
  • Lindisfarne is where the main character of Harry goes to on pilgrimage in the book "Kingdom by the Sea" by Robert Westall.
  • 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 Stories.
  • 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 Lyndesfarne Bridge 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.
  • Lindisfarne is known as Holy Island and The New Beginning in "Brother in the Land" by Robert Swindells, 1984.
  • A novel called "Dragon Under the Hill" was first published by Hutchinson & Co. in 1972 by the ex newsreader Gordon Honeycombe. The ISBN is 0 09 113030 1.
  • The monastery and monks of Lindisfarne are an important part of British author/broadcastor Melvyn Bragg's epic, historically-based novel "Credo" published in 1996.


In comics

  • A two-part story in the Vertigo series Northlanders concerns the destruction on the monastery.


In music



References

  1. Census 2001
  2. Breeze, "Medcaut." p. 187-8.
  3. Breeze, "Medcaut." p. 187-8.
  4. Swanton, Michael. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, p. 57, n. 15.


Secondary sources

  • Breeze, Andrew. "Medcaut, the Brittonic name of Lindisfarne." Northern History 42 (2008): 187-8.


External links




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