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My business partner Bill joined me this weekend for my travels. Bill is great fun and enjoys the trips. This was really a trip he has always wanted to make as he loves religious history and this island has a great deal of it.
One interesting thing about the island is the schedule (above) that shows when the tied is low. If you click on the top picture you can get a bigger picture of the tide tables. If you wait until high tide you can’t get to or off the island. The road was open from 9:25 to 5:30 and we got there just as the causeway opened.
As the island has a unique past a little history here – the Celts were an ancient tribe dating back to central Europe and Gall. You might know that the book Galations in the New Testament was written to the church in Galatia which were Celts. Eventually the migrated through France to what is today the British Isles. The Scots, Irish and original Brits were all Celtic tribes as were the Pics – a group of Celts that inhabited Scotland before the Scots left Ireland and took over Scotland.
Prior to 500 AD the name Lindisfarne was given to the island by the Anglo-Saxons (two germanic tribes that conquered Britain and then over time blended into one). When the Normans conquered Britain (William in 1066 – Normans were Viking/French) the monks of Durham (nearby Abbey) named it the “Holy Island”. We do not know the origins of the name Lindisfarne. By 683 there was a monastery on the island which was used to educate the people and bring the Christian religion to Britain. Many educated young monks came from the monastery to other parts of England to preach the gospel. The Celtic monk St. Aiden was the first to come from Iona (west Scotland) at the request of King Oswald who had a castle nearby (shown in another blog). This era was the golden age of Lindisfarne. The famous Monk St. Cuthbert lived and died on this island – a hero and a man of God who walked everywhere he went and related to the every day man. His remains were a source of many pilgrimages in the medieval times. In 793 the Vikings landed in Lindisfarne and destroyed the monastery.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJynMmdX4xw]
St. Cuthbert’s relics (body and other possessions) were moved to Durham to the south about 50 miles to the Durham Cathedral to protect it as an important relic for pilgrimages. His body lay in a fantastic granite case until Henry VIII sent his troops to the north to find ways to make money. The troops stole the granite case and left the body exposed to the elements. Today St. Cuthbert’s bones are resting in a coffin at the back of Durham Cathedral (to the up and right is a picture of the back end where his body lays). Although nothing like the pilgrimages of the medieval period it is still a very popular spot for tourists. When I was in the church on Sunday for services I went afterwards and watched large crowds praying around the crypt and lighting candles.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1AfWoijM_40]