There’s a certain kind of faith that comes with relying on the tides. Deep down, I know that they’re measurable and predictable; that the gravitational pull of the moon will remain constant and the water will rise and fall as expected. Still, the thought of misjudging the waves and becoming stranded on Lindisfarne means that I’m watching the waves and the clock carefully, hoping that everything will move as forecast. It seems fitting, then, that faith and piety are what made Lindisfarne and Holy Island famous.
As well as faith, Holy Island and the surrounding North Sea also ask something else of you: Patience. Unlike most destinations, you cannot just arrive whenever you feel like it. Instead, you need to wait for the sea to permit you, and then leave before the sea once again stops you. It’s a twice-daily surrender to a tide table pinned up in a mainland car park, and in that, something of the old pilgrim discipline survives.
You see, Holy Island is linked to the mainland by a causeway that becomes submerged at high tide. In part, this is why it was such a place of solitude and sanctity for the Monks that once occupied the abbey here. And long before a road existed, before there was a causeway to check or a car park to queue in, pilgrims crossed to this island on foot, following a line of ancient wooden poles driven into the mudflats, timing their steps against the sea.
Some people still do, walking the sands the old way, sinking slightly into the sand and, watching the safety refuges on their stilts against the sky, attempt to understand something about Holy Island that day trippers in cars can’t quite grasp; that this was never meant to be an easy place to reach, and that the difficulty was, in some sense, the point.
It was this deliberate remoteness that drew Irish monk Aidan here in 635 AD, invited by King Oswald of Northumbria to establish a mission on the very edge of his kingdom, on a tidal scrap of land. Aidan built wooden churches, and around his small, humble foundation grew a community that would, within a few generations, produce one of the great treasures of the early medieval world: the Lindisfarne Gospels, created around 700 AD, most likely by a monk named Eadfrith who would later become the island’s bishop.
Their pages, whole sheets in complex patterns of interlacing knotwork, spirals and stylised animal forms so dense and fine that some contain hundreds of interlacements to the square inch, were a fusion of Celtic, Anglo-Saxon and even Mediterranean influence worked by a single patient hand. Centuries later, a priest named Aldred would squeeze an Old English translation between the Latin lines, word by word, making the Gospels the oldest surviving English translation of the Gospel text.
Cuthbert came later, first as a monk and then as bishop, and it was Cuthbert more than anyone whose sanctity fixed itself to this place. He is a man known for retreating even further than Lindisfarne to the smaller, starker Farne Islands, seeking a solitude even greater than Holy Island could offer. If you stand today at the ruined edge of the priory and look east over the dunes, you’ll spot them as a grey scatter of rock on the horizon, and it seems easy to imagine how he thought he would find isolation here.
Anyone that like me, was made to study the vikings a disproportional amount at primary school, or was a keen reader of the Horrible History books as a child, will be well aware that the first flowering of holiness ended, famously and violently, on the 8th of June 793, when Viking longships appeared off the coast and raided the undefended monastery, killing monks, driving others into the sea, and carrying off captives alongside the church’s treasures. It is often considered to be the first landing of the Vikings on British soil, or at least the one that is remembered most, and the shock of it rippled far beyond Northumbria.
The scholar Alcuin of York, writing from the continent, could barely process what he was hearing. The raiders had struck a place assumed, by the logic of the age, to lie under God’s own protection, and framed the massacre less as an act of piracy than as a kind of divine judgement.
Following this, monastic life on the island was worn down over the decades that followed by the same threat returning again and again, until in the 870s the community finally gave up the island altogether, carrying with them Cuthbert’s body, and very likely the Gospels themselves on a long, wandering journey to Durham, where, generations later, his remains still lie beneath the cathedral that was built around around them.
What visitors see today, from the roofless nave to the single surviving rib of stone known as the rainbow arch, largely dates not from Aidan’s time at all, but from a Norman-era priory raised in the twelfth century by Benedictine monks from Durham, who returned to consecrate the island and build something that they thought would last. Even the island’s most ‘ancient’ ruin isn’t an original; but it serves to honour and revive the holiness that had already, once, been broken.
But faith on Lindisfarne did not end with that second decline, nor with Henry VIII’s dissolution centuries later, which finally emptied the monastic buildings for good and left the stone free for scavenging. Some of it was hauled up onto Beblowe Crag to help build the castle that still watches over the harbour today. It was a fort that was built, quite literally, from the bones of the church it replaced. Still, walk a few steps west from the priory ruins, and you’ll find the parish Church of St Mary the Virgin still standing, still in use, with a Saxon arch older than anything else on the island.
Although most visitors come for the priory and castle, there is the island beyond the village, which has its own kind of holiness and solitude that is only found in connecting with nature. It’s a part of the island that was here long before Christianity, will outlive it, and is indifferent to the fortifications, raids, and churches that make the island’s history so fascinating.
Walk north from the priory, past the last cottages, and you’ll find yourself treading gravel paths surrounded by marram grass that hisses in a wind that rarely stops. Around the edges, there are gaps in the dunes, revealing pale sand that seems to disappear into the sea. On other frontiers, the land gives way entirely to the flats: an enormous, breathing expanse of mud and shallow water and eelgrass that floods and drains with a rhythm of the tides that was here long before any monastery and will remain long after people have left.
It is difficult, standing out there with the wind coming hard off the North Sea and the village reduced to a huddle of rooftops in the distance, not to feel something of what drew Aidan here in the first place: a sense of peace, clarity, and a place with the noise of the world stripped out of it.
Getting to Holy Island
Holy Island is connected to the Northumberland coast by a single causeway that floods with every tide. For roughly five hours at a time, the road disappears under the North Sea, and the island is, quite literally, cut off. Outside those windows, you can drive or walk across.
Safe crossing times are published in advance and change daily so it’s worth checking the official Northumberland County Council tide tables for the specific dates of your visit rather than relying on guesswork. Build in a buffer either side of the recommended window; the sands either side of the road flood before the causeway itself does, but it floods quickly.
Most visitors arrive by car, with parking available in a large pay-and-display car park just outside the village. It isn’t worth driving into the village itself as the narrow streets aren’t built for casual driving or parking. A limited bus service also runs from Berwick-upon-Tweed, timed around safe crossings. This is useful if you don’t have a car and don’t fancy a long walk from the mainland.
By Air
The nearest airports are Newcastle and Edinburgh, both around 65 miles away. Both connect onward to Berwick-upon-Tweed from the city centres by train in around 45 minutes, making Berwick the natural hub for the final leg of the journey.
By train
Berwick-upon-Tweed is the nearest mainline station, sitting on LNER’s East Coast Main Line between London King’s Cross and Edinburgh Waverley, as well as on CrossCountry’s routes from the Midlands and South West. It’s about 45 minutes from Edinburgh, 45 minutes from Newcastle, and around 3 hours 35 minutes direct from London. From Berwick, it’s roughly a 30-minute onward journey to the island by road.
By Bus
From Berwick-upon-Tweed railway station, the tide-dependent 477 bus service (operated by Borders Buses, with some journeys run by Glen Valley Tours) covers the roughly 14 miles out to Holy Island in about 35 minutes, terminating at the Chare Ends car park. It’s a limited service, often only running once or twice a day, but more frequently in the summer holidays, and timed around the safe crossing windows. If you’re coming via Beal, buses X15 and X18 from Berwick and Newcastle also stop at Beal Filling Station, close to the start of the causeway.
Things to do on Holy Island
For a place you can cross on foot in under an hour, Holy Island has enough to keep you occupied for an entire crossing window (or more if you decide to stay over), packing in a disproportionate amount to see for such a small patch of land. Its attractions fall roughly into two categories: the historic core clustered around the village, such as the priory and the castle, and the wilder landscape beyond it, where you can hike on walking trails and see a nature reserve that is a nice break from the crowds of the town itself.
Lindisfarne Priory
The ruined priory is the spiritual centre of Holy Island and the reason this place is so famous. Now just a cluster of soft red sandstone arches standing open to the sky, that have been worn by centuries of North Sea weather, it was once a Norman-era priory, founded in the 12th century by Benedictine monks from Durham who re-established a religious community on the site of Aidan’s original 7th-century monastery. Despite it being largely in ruins, you can still trace the shape of the church in the standing arches and column bases, even where the roof and much of the upper stonework have long since gone.
The single most impressive feature is the ‘rainbow arch’, which is a lone rib of stone that once supported the crossing tower where nave and transepts met. It now stands alone against the sky after the rest of the tower collapsed, but has become something of an unofficial symbol of the island.
Alongside the ruins, the small on-site museum (run by English Heritage) gives you the story and history of the site that a visit to the priory alone can be difficult to piece together, from the Anglo-Saxon monastery’s founding by St Aidan, its role in early English Christianity, the production of the Lindisfarne Gospels, and the devastating Viking raid of 793 that ended the island’s first religious community. I think you should allow yourself at least an hour to do the site justice, more if you want to read every information panel and take in the small collection of carved stones at the museum, recovered from the original Anglo-Saxon buildings.
Entry to both the priory and museum is free for English Heritage members.
Right next door to the parish Church of St Mary the Virgin, which can be easy to overlook when it sits in the Priory’s shadow, but is remarkable in its own right. History says that when St Aidan established his monastery in 635, he built two wooden churches on the site, one dedicated to St Peter for monastic use and a second, more westerly, dedicated to St Mary for the surrounding community. Although the modern church standing today bears no resemblance to the original, it is the long descendant of that second building, rebuilt in stone over the centuries.
The current building mostly dates from between 1180 and 1300, though a round-headed arch in the chancel and an unusually high-level doorway are distinctly Saxon in style, and the church still contains sections from that Saxon period, most notably the Saxon arch. It remains the island’s parish church, open daily for visits and private prayer. Inside, look for The Journey, a striking elm sculpture by the Durham sculptor Fenwick Lawson depicting the hooded monks who carried St Cuthbert’s coffin off the island after the Viking raids, along with stained glass windows commemorating Aidan and Cuthbert.
Just outside, between the church and the priory, sits the Petting Stone, the worn base of an Anglo-Saxon cross around which local tradition has Holy Island brides walk on their wedding day for good luck.
Lindisfarne Castle
While the priory represents the island’s faith and piety, the castle represents something completely different. Perched on the top of Beblowe Crag, a natural outcrop of volcanic rock that rises sharply from the flat surroundings, Lindisfarne Castle was built in the 1550s using stone quarried, quite literally, from the abandoned priory, a piece of medieval recycling that says something about how completely the island’s religious era had ended by then. Its original purpose was defensive: a small artillery fort guarding the harbour against Scottish raids and shipping threats, standing watch over the approach from the sea.
It survived largely intact until the early 20th century, when the magazine publisher Edward Hudson bought the castle as a private holiday home and commissioned the architect Edwin Lutyens to remodel it. Lutyens’ work transformed the fort’s cramped corridors and functional interior into something much more luxurious, adding vaulted ceilings, mullioned windows, and warm furnishings that feel a world away from the building’s military origins. Outside, garden designer Gertrude Jekyll laid out a small walled garden, which is still tended today and particularly colourful in summer.
Getting there involves a steep walk up the crag from the village, but the effort is worth it for the views from the terrace at the peak, which stretch back across the mudflats and dunes to the mainland and out to the Farne Islands on a clear day. Today, the site is managed by the National Trust, who host contemporary art installations alongside the permanent collection. Be warned, it gets busy during peak months and wandering through the tight corridors between rooms can feel quite cramped when it’s crowded.
Walking the island (coastal walks, St Cuthbert's Isle at low tide)
Beyond the main sights of the priory and castle, Holy Island also gives you the opportunity to take a few short and relatively easy walks amongst nature. The whole island is small enough to cross on foot in a few hours, and there are several marked walking routes that can be undertaken, depending on how much time you have.
An obvious one is the short walk that leads out to St Cuthbert’s Isle, a tiny tidal outcrop just off the village where the saint is said to have retreated for solitary prayer. It’s only accessible at low tide across its own strip of rock and sand, which floods on a separate schedule from the main causeway (once again, always check local tide times before setting off).
For something longer but no more strenuous, you can make your way from the village, past the harbour, towards the island’s northern and eastern shore. It’s quite a change from the busy town centre, as most paths are largely devoid of other people and pass through dunes and machair grassland, showing another side to Holy Island beyond the priory and castle. The Straight Lonnen path cuts across the island’s interior and makes a good link between the village and the northern coast. If you’re feeling a little more ambitious, you can tackle a full circuit of the island, which is still only a few miles long and takes in dunes and beaches, giving you a greater sense of isolation or connection to the land here.
For something more historic, the ancient Pilgrims’ Way crosses the sands on foot from the mainland to the island, marked by a line of wooden poles driven into the mudflats. It’s a route that was walked for centuries by pilgrims even before the modern causeway existed, and still walked today by those wanting a more godly way to arrive. It has its own crossing-time calculations that are different from the times for the road, and should only be attempted with proper local guidance and a clear understanding of the tides.
Lindisfarne National Nature Reserve & Birdwatching
Much of the land and foreshore around Holy Island, such as the dunes, mudflats, sandflats and saltmarsh, is encompassed by the Lindisfarne National Nature Reserve, one of the most significant sites in England for wintering wildfowl and wading birds. The reserve’s mudflats support internationally important numbers of pale-bellied Brent geese, which arrive from their Arctic Canadian breeding grounds each autumn and spend the winter grazing here, alongside wigeon, golden plover, bar-tailed godwit and a long list of other winter visitors.
The dune systems inland from the shore also have their ecological interest, supporting a range of wildflowers and specialist plants that are adapted to the salty, wind-beaten landscape. If you’re lucky, grey and common seals are also sometimes seen out on the sandbanks at low tide, particularly around the more remote northern part of the reserve.
Even if you don’t have a particular interest in birdwatching, it’s still worth wandering through the reserve’s landscape. The expanse of sand, water and sky feels quite elemental and makes for some of the most striking views on the island, especially at dawn or dusk when the light catches the wet sand and channels, and you can spot the castle in the distance. Access is generally open along public paths, though some areas are seasonally restricted to protect breeding or roosting birds.
Sample Mead at St. Aiden's Winery
No visit to Holy Island is quite complete without a stop at St Aidan’s Winery, home of Lindisfarne Mead, which is one of the island’s best-known exports with roots reaching back to the site’s monastic past. The winery produces its mead using a recipe developed by the monks of Lindisfarne Priory, fermenting grape and other fruit wines with local honey to produce a sweet drink that’s been part of the island’s identity for generations.
The shop itself is worth a browse as much as a taste: alongside bottles of the mead in various strengths and styles, it stocks plenty of other local produce and gifts, including sweets, condiments and smoked Craster kippers. A few glasses of Mead are usually set up on the counter, so you have the chance to taste a few free samples of mead before buying.
Where to Eat & Drink on Holy Island
Given the island’s small size, food options are fairly limited. There’s a handful of cafés and pubs around the village, but they all serve relatively straightforward, basic food such as sandwiches, fresh crab, hearty soups, and proper pub lunches.
The island’s most famous products, though, is Lindisfarne Mead, a honey wine produced by St Aidan’s Winery using a recipe with monastic roots. You’ll find it in shops across the island (as well as on the mainland) and picking up a bottle makes for a great souvenir. It’s also worth stopping in for a tasting at the source.
One of Northumberland’s most well-known and sought-after culinary exports is Lindisfarne oysters. Oyster farming here dates back to 1381, when Lindisfarne Priory’s monks are recorded as having paid a Scotsman for a boatload of oysters, making these beds among the oldest in England. The modern farm, run by the Sutherland family since 1989, cultivates its oysters on intertidal trestles within the Lindisfarne National Nature Reserve, just south of the island, and supplies them fresh year-round. It’s worth noting that the oyster farm itself sits on the mainland side of the reserve near Ross Farm, rather than on Lindisfarne and it can be hard to find them being served on the Island. it’s worth asking locally or checking with individual restaurants and pubs on the island about whether oysters feature that day, rather than assuming they’ll be on the menu.
The village Post Office and Café
Although this appears to be just a regular post office offering the usual postal services and a selection of local produce, books and souvenirs, the post office runs an attached café serving takeaway meals cooked to order. In the post office itself, you can pick up a selection of sandwiches and quiches which are ideal for a quick snack or lunch.
The Ship Inn
An 18th-century free house with rooms, all olde-world beams and open fires, and home to the island’s own 793 gin and vodka distillery, named for the year of the Viking raid on the priory. A traditional pub in every sense, and a good spot for an evening pint alongside a proper meal if you’re staying over on the island.
The Crown and Anchor
A friendly, independently run pub with rooms overlooking the market square, serving lunch and dinner in a cosy setting. Along with the Ship Inn, the Crown and Anchor is one of the island’s two proper pubs, and both can get fully booked for evening meals in the busier months, so it’s worth reserving ahead.
Pilgrims Coffee House and Roastery
It’s fairly hard to find a decent coffee on the island, with most cafes just dishing out instant in a mug. However, Pilgrim’s is the closest you will get to a third-wave, specialist flat white or batch brew. This stylish cafe roasts its own beans on site, making it a popular stop for coffee, pastries, or a focaccia sandwich before or after a walk around the priory. I would say that, if you’re going to pick up a drink and a lunchtime snack anywhere, it should be here. The expansive outdoor garden and seating area out back catches the sun and is a good place to rest before carrying on with your day.
Chare Ends Café
A newer addition to the island’s food scene, this simple cafe serves decent coffee, sandwiches, breakfast, seafood and ice cream seven days a week from 9am. It’s a reliable all-day option located beside the Lindisfarne Hotel.
Island Shack
A casual outdoor food stall next to St Aidan’s Winery and the mead shop, serving fresh local crab sandwiches, Aberdeen Angus burgers, hot dogs, chips and sweet potato fries. It’s a good, unfussy option for a quick bite between sightseeing.
Beangoose Restaurant
Widely regarded as the island’s best place to eat, this small, award-winning restaurant on the Marketplace uses local, organic, freshly prepared ingredients and has built a strong local reputation for its lobster dishes in particular. It only opens from May to the end of October, so if you’re voting in the off-season visitors, you will need to look elsewhere.
Where to stay
Accommodation on Holy Island is fairly limited. There are a small number of guesthouses, B&Bs and self-catering cottages, but they are well worth booking well ahead if you want to stay overnight. The benefit is that, once the last safe crossing has passed and most day-trippers have left, the island feels rather empty and peaceful, leaving you with a serene version of Lindisfarne that most people never see.
That said, most visitors do come for the day, and a well-timed single crossing window is enough to see all the sights. If you’re building Holy Island into a wider Northumberland coast itinerary, a day trip may simply be the more practical choice.
The Lindisfarne Hotel
One of the island’s longest-established places to stay, this self-check-in B&B sits at the heart of the village and has changed hands only a handful of times over the years, most recently coming under the same ownership as the Manor House Hotel.
Manor House Hotel
Right on the market square, this was once the summer residence of the lord of several local manors, and it retains a certain grandeur as a result. There’s a garden to relax in after a day’s walking, an on-site restaurant and bar, and free private parking, which is no small thing on an island where road space is tight.
Belvue Guesthouse
A simple but high-quality guesthouse with en-suite rooms throughout, each with rainfall showers, fluffy towels, fast wifi and a flat-screen TV. It’s the kind of place that offers small comforts that matter after a day on exposed coastal paths.
The Ship Inn
An 18th-century free house with rooms above the bar, giving it a more characterful, pub-first atmosphere than the island’s hotels. It’s also home to the 793 gin and vodka distillery, named for the year of the Viking raid on the priory, which is a fitting bit of local history to have on tap and a good option for anyone who wants their stay to double as an introduction to the island’s own spirits.
Marygate House and Lindisfarne House
Run by the island’s religious communities rather than as commercial hotels, these offer simple, welcoming accommodation aimed at pilgrims, spiritual seekers and community groups, reflecting Holy Island’s continuing life as a place of retreat alongside its role as a visitor destination. Lindisfarne House can host groups of up to around 15–17 guests, though it’s only available outside term time, when it isn’t in use for a children’s camp.
Staying on the mainland
If island accommodation is booked up, or you’d simply want to visit Holy Island as a day trip, there are several nearby mainland towns and villages that are beautiful and make good bases for visiting both Lindisfarne and the rest of Northumberland.
Beal
This is the closest mainland point to the causeway and is just a couple of miles from the crossing. You’ll find a handful of cottages and B&Bs here, so you can be among the first across when the tide allows.
Berwick-upon-Tweed
A historic walled border town around 10 miles from the island, with a good range of hotels, guesthouses and restaurants, plus its own worthwhile Elizabethan-era fortifications to explore.
Bamburgh
About 14 miles south of Holy Island, Bamburgh is one of Northumberland’s most iconic villages, sitting beneath its own dramatic castle and beach. This makes for a scenic, if slightly further, base for combining Holy Island with the rest of the Northumberland coast.
Belford
A small inland village roughly midway between Alnwick and Berwick, with pubs, shops and B&Bs, often used as a quieter, more central base for touring the wider coast.
When Is the Best Time to Visit Holy Island
One great thing about Lindisfarne is that you can visit throughout the year, with each season having its own appeal and bringing something different to the table. The tides stay constant, but the land and the water around them change completely from month to month. Which season suits you depends on whether you’re after wildlife, solitude, or simply sunny weather for walking.
Spring (March–May)
Spring is always my favourite time to travel in the UK, and Holy Island is no exception. This is when the island’s dune grasslands come alive and the machair-like turf around the priory and out towards the Snook fills with wildflowers such as orchids, cowslips, and drifts of thrift along the coastal fringes. It’s also a great time to visit the nature reserve as migrant birds pass through on their way further north. Eider ducks, which breed on the island in some numbers, become increasingly visible as the season goes on.
You’ll find fewer crowds than in the height of summer, and the weather is mild enough that walking is comfortable. Just be aware that some guesthouses and cafes may still be running reduced off-season hours.
Summer (June–August)
Visiting in Summer brings the best odds of good weather, along with nesting seabirds along the coast. It’s also, unsurprisingly, the busiest season due to the school holidays and when the safe crossing windows are around midday; the causeway and village can become quite crowded, with queues for the car park and popular sites – I found Lindisfarne Castle to be so busy in August that navigating its rooms and narrow corridors was actually quite stressful.
Autumn (September–November)
From September onwards, the mudflats and saltmarsh begin filling up with wildfowl and waders, meaning that the reserve is an ideal stop for twitchers. You’ll also find thousands of pale-bellied Brent geese arriving from Arctic Canada. The best part is that the island will be relatively quiet as the crowds tend to dwindle noticeably after the summer holidays end. The only downside is that the weather becomes less predictable, and some seasonal businesses may start reducing hours toward November.
Winter (December–February)
This is Lindisfarne at its starkest and bleakest, but it is also when the island is the most atmospheric. The North Sea is grey, the causeway is empty between crossings, and the reserve is packed with its full contingent of wintering geese on the mudflats. It’s worth noting that the season brings shorter safe crossing windows relative to daylight hours, harsher weather, and reduced opening hours or closures at some attractions and eateries.
FAQs
As Holy Island is one of the most visited places in this corner of Northumberland, there are plenty of information sources online to help you plan your visit. However, there are a handful of questions that spring to mind before visiting, usually around actually getting to the island, parking, and, of course, tide times. Before you go, here’s what’s worth knowing.
Is Holy Island cut off from the mainland?
Lindisfarne is connected to the Northumberland coast by a causeway that floods with the tide, cutting the island off for several hours at a stretch, twice a day. Outside those windows, it’s reachable by car or on foot across the sands. Always check the official crossing times before you travel, as they change daily.
How long do you need on Lindisfarne?
You only need a few hours to see the priory, the castle, and the village, but I would recommend making the most of a full safe crossing window, often 5–6 hours, to walk the nature reserve, have lunch on the island, and feel the place empty out once the day-trippers leave for the last safe crossing.
Is there a fee to visit Holy Island?
Walking onto the island and around the village is free, and there is no toll for the causeway. Parking is a little pricey (it’ll set you back £10.50 if you stay for the entire safe crossing window), and there are separate admission charges for Lindisfarne Priory (English Heritage) and Lindisfarne Castle (National Trust), so members of either organisation should bring their cards.
What happens if you get caught by the tide?
The causeway to Holy Island can flood quickly, and when it does, the currents are dangerous. You will see signs around the island showing images of cars that have become stranded, and in the past, lives have been lost when people ignored the timetables.
If you’re caught out, there are refuge boxes raised on stilts along the causeway; the advice is to get to one and call for help rather than attempt to drive or wade through rising water.
Do you need a car to visit Lindisfarne?
No. A limited bus service runs from Berwick-upon-Tweed, timed around safe crossings, though a car gives more flexibility, especially outside summer. Either way, journeys still have to work around the tide.
What is Lindisfarne famous for?
Most people will have heard of Lindisfarne because of its 7th-century monastery. Founded by St Aidan, home to St Cuthbert, and the birthplace of the Lindisfarne Gospels, it was also the target of one of the first recorded Viking raids on English soil in 793.
Is Holy Island worth visiting?
In my opinion, yes. It is the perfect combination of history and a beautiful, if somewhat bleak, landscape that, while you can find these things elsewhere in Northumberland, has more significance than other villages with castles.
