Today, May 28, Dad, Anna and I set out from Anna’s
home and headed north to the holy island of Lindisfarne, where the remains of
an Anglo Saxon priory can still be visited, along with Lindisfarne Castle—a
National Trust home.
Lindisfarne
is a causeway island, meaning that when the tide is in, it is completely
inaccessible from the mainland. We
checked the tide charts twice, to be sure we would have time to visit and get
off the island (Anna’s father said about one vehicle a year gets stuck on the
causeway at high tide, and Wikipedia says
one per month!), then made our way across the causeway at about
10:30. Although this was thirty minutes
into the safe crossing time, the road was still badly flooded, and we had to
proceed with some care. Anna’s little
Ford KA (which she adorably calls Ka), made the crossing without any problems,
despite my Dad joking repeatedly that we were going to break down and have to
follow the old pilgrim’s walk. We parked
in visitor parking and made our way to the priory.
Lindisfarne
Priory
Lindisfarne priory is (according to English
Heritage) best known as the home of St. Cuthbert, the patron saint of
Northumbria. It was founded in the sixth
century by St. Aiden of Iona, but the place is (to a student of history, at
least) best known as the home of The Venerable Bede. St. Bede was a monk at the priory in the
eighth century, who wrote The
Ecclesiastical History of Britain.
The Lindisfarne Gospels—an illuminated manuscript
containing the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John—were created at the
priory, and were on exhibit at a nearby museum, but the time limit imposed by
the incoming tide prevented us from seeing them.
We wandered the remains of the priory for some time,
reading the various plaques and scrambling (where permitted) among the tumbled
rock. We found the large, now illegible
tombstones of several monks, and a modern bronze statue of St. Cuthbert—labelled
in braille at its base. St. Cuthbert, it
seems, chose Lindisfarne for its remoteness, but would, on occasion, journey to
another nearby island to meditate in total solitude.
Lindisfarne
Castle
When we had finished at the priory, we made our way to
the headland of the island, where the National Trust maintains Lindisfarne
Castle. This was originally constructed
as a Tudor fort, and later converted to a private home. The path up to the castle is very steep, with
steps occasionally cut into it to make the ascent easier. I was especially grateful for the rope
handrail, since the stone path was very slippery.
Edward Hudson, the owner of Country Life magazine, bought the castle in the early twentieth
century, and had it refurbished. The
steepness of the path made transporting furniture difficult, so when the National
Trust took the castle over, they left it exactly as it was when the Hudson
family lived there. There are photos in
many of the rooms of a young girl playing, with the rooms looking exactly as they
do today.
The most interesting feature, I thought, was the exposed
mechanism in the scullery that is used to raise and lower the portcullis. The portcullis is still in working order, and
is raised and lowered once a year to make sure it is safe for the many visitors
to pass under it. One of the house
stewards told us to look for the wood wedges driven into the stone grooves
under the iron gate, put there just in case the mechanism fails!
Alnwick
Gardens
Our time on the island was running short, so after a
quick visit to the castle battery, with a spectacular view across to Bamburgh
castle on the mainland, we headed back to the parking lot (with a quick detour
to the gift shop so Anna could pick up some Lindisfarne mead; Holy Island is
famous for this drink, and for good reason—it’s delicious!). We paused on our way across the causeway and
stepped out of the car so I could get a sense of how barren the space was. Streamers of seaweed and large tracks of sand
and mud were strewn across the tarmac road, and a number of platforms have been
built at various points along the causeway for stranded visitors to retreat to
if they aren’t smart enough to turn back at the “Do not proceed when water reaches causeway”
signs. ;)
Alnwick (pronounced “annick”) Gardens are on the way
from Lindisfarne to Newcastle, and are a gorgeous series of landscaped gardens,
including a stepped fountain (don’t linger on the bridge that crosses it unless
you want to get soaked by occasional jets of water), a tulip garden, “roots and
shoots” area, rose garden, and bamboo maze.
Due to the early season, only the early flowers were in bloom, but we
had a lovely time wandering and chatting.
We stopped for supper on the way home at a roadside
pub, and were about halfway back to Newcastle when a small light began flashing
on the dashboard. Following Dad’s directions,
Anna pulled over into another pub parking lot, and we all got out. Opening the hood let out a great belch of
steam; Ka was overheating. While a group
of curious pub-goers watched, Dad (who is a recently retired auto teacher), got
a jug of water from the pub and tended to the car. We drove the rest of the way back to Anna’s
house without a problem, but Ka has been consigned to the mechanic’s shop for
the rest of our stay.
Hadrian’s Wall tomorrow!
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