Lindisfarne, or Holy Island, a tidal island off the Northumberland coast reached by a causeway that floods twice a day, was the base from which Irish monasticism was carried into Anglo-Saxon England.
Aidan, Cuthbert and the mission
In 635 the Irish monk Aidan came from Iona at the invitation of the Northumbrian king Oswald and founded a monastery on Lindisfarne, from which Christianity spread through northern England. Its most famous figure was Cuthbert, monk, hermit and bishop, who became after his death the most popular saint of northern England, credited with many miracles at his tomb. The monastery produced the Lindisfarne Gospels, a masterpiece of insular manuscript art, made in Cuthbert's honour around 700.
Vikings and the flight of the community
In 793 Lindisfarne was struck by one of the first recorded Viking raids on Britain, an event that horrified Christian Europe and is often taken to mark the beginning of the Viking age. The community eventually abandoned the island, carrying Cuthbert's body and relics on long wanderings before settling at Durham, where his shrine remains. A medieval priory was later re-established on Lindisfarne, now a ruin in the care of English Heritage.
Pilgrimage across the sands
The parish church beside the priory ruins is in use, retreat houses operate on the island, and pilgrims still cross on foot at low water along the marked Pilgrims' Way, a route governed entirely by the tide, which is the practical fact shaping every visit. Lindisfarne remains an active place of Christian pilgrimage and retreat and one of the foundational sites of English Christianity.