We took a day trip to Lindisfarne (Holy Island) today. Its a small island just off the North East coast of England which you can drive out to when the tide is low. Its about 1.5 hours drive from where we live in Edinburgh.
We've been a few times before and love visiting the island. We had a fantastic day for it and the tides were perfect, with the road crossing clear from 9:40 through to 17:45.
The crossing is quite cool. The road is built across the mud flats out to the island. It gets completely covered when the tide comes in. Above you can see one of the refuges so that you can shelter from the sea if you get caught by it crossing at the wrong time. It does happen - people loose track of time and try crossing when its too late and get stuck !
Its referred to as Holy Island because it became an early site of Christianity in North East England in around the 7th century or so. Above is a picture of the the old Abbey from the grounds of one of the existing churches.
We had never really gone to the south west corner of the island before so we made our way there for a change. In the pic above you can see another tiny island that you can reach by foot when the tide is out (St Cuthbert's Island).
So we crossed over. Its quite small and is where St Cuthbert used to isolate himself (he was hermit), and as such its considered an important site for many of the people that make the pilgrimage to the island.
Thats a view looking back over from the crossing point. The structure on the high ground to the right is the old coastguard station.
We made it up to the coastguard station for the first time. Its now an observation point which you can freely enter for elevated views around the island which is quite cool.
From the Coastguard tower we also got a nice view over the site of the old Abbey, which is now a ruin, although very impressive.
One cool feature on the island that you dont see in a lot of other places is its use for old boats. They turn them upside-down and make them into sheds.
The one above was pretty cool and seemed to be very much in use.
The island is still quite a popular religious site, and has a number of operating churches like the one above (the Church of St Mary the Virgin). The church you see now was rebuilt in the 1800s, but the site was in use back to 635 AD !
We had a look inside the church and saw this amazing wooden sculpture of 6 monks/priests carrying a coffin.
The churchyard has a number of old gravestones surrounding it from islanders, like the one above dating back to 1818 (and still in pretty good condition for over 200 years old).
I quite liked the one above as well, which is now rather overgrown and weather worn.
We had quite a nice time just wandering around the island and discovering what it had to offer. The weather and sea views really were a treat.
The island unsurprisingly also has a close connection with the sea and fishing. Creelers still operate out of the harbour here, and we could see four of them anchored in the bay beyond.
Well we really did enjoy our day out there. I always enjoy driving over the causeway to get there, it really does seem like you are entering a different part of the country because the island has a different way of life. Well worth the visit, and we will definitely go back again.
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