From newcastlecitybreaks.com
Lindisfarne Priory on Holy Island was the site of one of the most important early centres of Christianity in Anglo-Saxon England. And it was not unfamiliar with the odd miracle or two. Founded by St Aidan in ad635, the monastery was transformed by the figure of Saint Cuthbert. An exceedingly holy man, Cuthbert had withdrawn to be a hermit on the lonely Farne Islands, returning to Lindisfarne to die. In ad698, 11 years after his death and burial here, Cuthbert's corpse was exhumed and found to be miraculously undecayed. The relics of this holy man survive to this day in Durham Cathedral.
From the end of the 8th century, the isolated island with its wealthy monastery proved easy prey for Viking raiders and the monks of the priory were driven out. Only in the 12th century did monks from Durham re-establish a religious house at Lindisfarne. The small community then lived on Holy Island until the dissolution of the monasteries in 1537. The fact that Lindisfarne, still a holy site and place of pilgrimage today, is cut off from the mainland at high tide - as waters flood the causeway - only adds to the fascination of this site.
