Lindisfarne
BETWEEN LAND AND SEA
Read time 4 mins
Lindisfarne, or Holy Island, has two names and two selves. For half the day, it is linked to the mainland by a slither of tarmac, over which a steady stream of visitors travel back and forth, buying souvenir tea towels and bottles of Mead. Twice a day, for 5 to 7 hours, the tide covers the causeway, and it becomes a true island.
Lindisfarne has been a place of pilgrimage since St. Aidan built his monastery here in AD 635. For many Christians, this tiny island lying off the Northumberland coast is what the Celtic Saints called a ‘thin place’, where the ‘distance between heaven and earth shrinks, and time and eternity embrace’. Certainly, the ebb and flow of the tides around Lindisfarne create an atmosphere that invites contemplation: a place where – to coin a phrase by Jonathan Raban –‘England peters out into water and water peters out into England’.
Before 1954 when the road was built, pilgrims traveled to Lindisfarne on foot, across the sand and mud flats. Nowadays, most visitors arrive by car and are people like me – lured to the island by a mixture of history, mystery, and geography. If you pause midway on the causeway, and ponder your smallness in the face of the incoming tide, it's easy to feel a kinship with those pilgrims who came here seeking to contemplate creation.
Every year, hapless drivers feel an almighty force when they mistime their crossing, salt water seeps into their engine, and they have to be rescued by the RNLI. Halfway across the causeway is a small wooden on stilts, built for such situations. If you are planning to visit, allow plenty of time and be sure to check the tide tables.
If you are walking the Pilgrims Way, keep a wary eye on the tide timetables, follow the wooden markers staked out in a line across the sands, and allow plenty of time to cross.
Although Lindisfarne receives over 650,000 visitors a year, the islanders have not allowed it to be Disneyfied – recently fending off a proposal for a bright green ‘land-train’ to ferry visitors around the island.
When the day trippers have disappeared back over the causeway, it's still possible to find some old-world contemplation on Lindisfarne – book a place to stay for the night, let the tide come in, walk when the evening wind skims the dunes, listen to the seals calling from the nearby rocks, and rejoice in being in this most ancient of places.
Photography notes: Fuji GFX 50R digitalPRACTICALITIES
Lindisfarne is located off the Northumberland coast, 20 miles north of Alnwick. It can be reached by road over the causeway or by walking across the sand and mudflats.
Don’t forget to consult the local Tide Tables before making a crossing.
STAY
The Barn at Beal, a campsite, bar and restaurant on the mainland, close to the causeway.
Lindisfarne Hotel A centrally located and comfortable hotel.
Lookout cottage a snug former lookout station.
STAY
Pilgrims Coffee – the best coffee on the Island
The Crown and Anchor – good food, unassuming and cosy atmosphere
FURTHER READING
English Heritage website listing
Tide Tables for crossing the causeway.
To the Island of Tides a book by Alistair Moffat (Amazon.co.uk link)
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