Visit to Holy Island

Holy Island (Lindisfarne) has been a place I have wanted to visit for a long time. You have to get the timing right as the island is cut off twice a day at high tide. We left early as it's a two hour drive from my home to just across the English border.

We arrived in good time and crossed the causeway you can see here. It's a couple of miles to the island itself. Since we were early, high tide was at 10:30 am, the island was quiet and not quite awake yet. The car park was empty and we had a wonderful time exploring. The next crossing was 3 pm.

Module 3 of my course requires me to make a further 4 collections, architecture, animals, landscape and plants so Holy Island was a wonderful source if inspiration.
Our first port of call was the priory first built in AD 635. The ruin you see is from the 12th Century. Going round the priory ruins gives you an insight into what life must have been like for the monks.

It was fascinating and I got a lot of pictures of the priory and there are still some lovely details of the decorative nature of the building despite it being a ruin.

This is one of the windows from the church that sits right next to the ruins. St Mary's Church it is called sits side by side with the priory - apparently quite common in Anglo-Saxon times. With the sun shining through it looks quite stunning. There are a number of these beautiful windows in the church together with the most beautiful carpet I think I have ever seen. I will post a picture later.

I took photographs of some beautiful celtic knotwork from a Celtic cross which I will also post later.

We then took a walk to the fort or castle. It is managed and owned now by the National Trust and houses some truly wonderful pieces of antique furniture etc. We couldn't take photographs but I have to tell you they were quite stunning.

In the grounds of the priory stands this beautiful statue. So serene I stood there looking at her for a long time, lost in the beauty of the whole place. Surrounded by so much serenity and history it was a wonderful experience.