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Lot Essay
Lindisfarne Castle and Priory situated on Holy Island lies two miles off the Northumberland coast and is linked to the mainland by a tidal causeway.
The priory was founded by Saint Aidan in AD635 and became an important early centre of Christianity in Anglo Saxon England and it is from this period that the Lindisfarne Gospel was written. Sustained attacks from Vikings and Danes led to the abandonment of the Priory by the late ninth century and the site was not resettled until 1083 when Benedictine monks built a Norman priory on the site of the old monastery. The Priory remained until the Dissolution when it was partially demolished and the stone used to build the castle.
Edmund Thornton Crawford's two views of 1851 depict the Priory as a romantic ruin. The first shows cattle grazing among the sandstone Romanesque arches of the roofless Priory against a backdrop of the sky, sea and castle. While the second captures a summers evening with fisherfolk bringing in the catch, oblivious to the looming silhouette of the Priory reflected in the calm sea beyond.
The priory was founded by Saint Aidan in AD635 and became an important early centre of Christianity in Anglo Saxon England and it is from this period that the Lindisfarne Gospel was written. Sustained attacks from Vikings and Danes led to the abandonment of the Priory by the late ninth century and the site was not resettled until 1083 when Benedictine monks built a Norman priory on the site of the old monastery. The Priory remained until the Dissolution when it was partially demolished and the stone used to build the castle.
Edmund Thornton Crawford's two views of 1851 depict the Priory as a romantic ruin. The first shows cattle grazing among the sandstone Romanesque arches of the roofless Priory against a backdrop of the sky, sea and castle. While the second captures a summers evening with fisherfolk bringing in the catch, oblivious to the looming silhouette of the Priory reflected in the calm sea beyond.