The Holy Island of Lindisfarne

About

This, is the Holy Island of Lindisfarne, a small tidal island off the Northumberland coast of England. You can drive to it for parts of the day as it is connected by a causeway, but when the tide comes in, it becomes cut off from the world.

Despite repeated warnings advising people not to cross outside of the safe times,on average, one vehicle each month requires rescuing, and sadly many people have also drowned over the years.

The island’s history is very vast, tragic, but also very special to the people who live here.

A monastery was built on the island in 634AD and monks settled on the island a year later. This lead to the island becoming known as the cradle of Christianity in the UK. It also became the original burial place of Saint Cuthbert, a monk and later bishop whom is said to have performed many miracles both in life and after his death as well as prophecies. His ghost is meant to walk here, traditionally on nights when the moon is full and the tide is in.

Due to the island’s strong spiritual associations, it became a place for pilgrims to vist, with the original pilgrims walk still visible to this day. People would flock from the mainland, hoping for miraculus cures from Cuthbert himself. His aura was very powerful – he is said to have performed exorcisms on posessed children that were brought to the island, and cured many sick people.

Cuthbert lived a life so secluded, that he even decided to live on a smaller island cut off from the actual Holy Island so that he could live as remotely as possible. The remains of his dwellings are still there and are a shrine to many people that visit.

Cuthbert died in 687AD and his body was buried within the monastery n the island. It is said that many years after his death, his remains were still intact, although about 1000 years later, it was noted that someone did inspect the body and reported it to be quite skeletal.

The island suffered its darkest day in 793AD when 3 Viking longboats sailed into Sandham Bay, a small beached cove to the North of the island. Whilst details of what happened are not evry well documented, what we do know is a massacre occured. The Vikings looted the monastery, setting fire to the buildings and killing the monks, who were defencless. Any riches were looted, and it is also accepted that some monks were taken back to Scandanavia as slaves.

The only eye witness to this event were a group of local fishermen who saw the Norse boats sailing past. It is believed that they had been watching the North East coast for quite a while, and picked the Holy Island as an easy place to invade to the the fact that monasteries were not guarded or protected. Nobody on the island during the attack was ever able to retell the story, presumably because there were no monks left.

This was the first ever recorded Viking attack on Britain. The rest remains history.

A priory has existed on the island that was rebuilt after the Viking invasion, but that itself is now in a ruined state. Incredibly, despite the looting, St Cuthbert’s tomb was not touched. Fearing the worst, his coffin was removed and taken off the island, where it spent many years travelling safely south, to its current resting place in Durham Cathedral, which you can still see to this day.

It’s no surprise then that this island has so many ghost stories. A group of choir boys were practicing in the church by the priory when they claim to have seen a monk walking straight through the church. The church is built on the site of the original church which was burnt to the ground during the 793 invasion.

In 1967, Pat Robinson of Sutton’s Dwellings, was paddling in the rock pools under the priory when she saw a monk walking along the beach. She said hello, but he carried on past her, and when she turned around, he was gone.

In 1967, Pat Robinson of Sutton’s Dwellings, was paddling in the rock pools under the priory when she saw a monk walking along the beach. She said hello, but he carried on past her, and when she turned around, he was gone.

There is a pub called The Manor House which was once an actual house, built in the 1840s on the massacre site. The Crossman family had children that would often report seeing shadow figures walking around inside and outside at night.

In 1921, 1933, 1934, 1956, 1981, 1982, 1988, three times in 1989, 2003, and 2011, reports were made of monks walking across Pilgrims Way on the causeway. The most famous of these were the 1934 sightings by 2 fishermen, Bob Armstrong and Jackie Stokes. They made the local newspapers at the time, and claimed they were completely sober, but witnessed “about a dozen figures through the fog” and appeared to be walking above the water level.

I researched the Holy Island Facebook group whilst making my video, and found that people in there have reported sightings of figures too, always in and around the priory area of the island.

There is also a castle here, built in the 16th century. They have their own ghost stories, more notably a man nicknamed ‘bottle nose’ for his distinct feature. However, they’re not welcoming to paranormal investigators and there’s plenty more on the island to focus on for now. The castle does make for a nice photo opportunity though if you’re here for a visit.

Watch the video and enjoy! For my investigation, I tried out a brand new piece of kit – a GeoPort, handbuilt by George Brown in the US, whom is also responsible for building the GeoPort used by Nick Groff in the Paranormal Lockdown and Death Walker shows. I found that this piece of kit is amazing and it has given me some EVPs that are incredible. I also took the Spiritbox, Thermal camera and a KII EMF Meter.