🌊Day 5 Holly Island Lindisfarne🦤 5 Mile Circular Walk Exploring Holly Island🌊

Day 5:
Sunday 31st August

Last Walk of Our Holiday..
Day Trip: Holy Island of Lindisfarne
Over the Causeway..
5 mile walk around the Island
By Car
Evening Event: Group Meal and Disco
Venue TBC

This mysterious tidal island off Northumberland’s coast, becomes inaccessible when the tide washes over its causeway adding to its unique and isolated charm..
When it’s safe to cross the causeway, expect to find spectacular coast an ancient priory, and a castle that teeters on the edge of the coastline..

*It is vital to check safe crossing times before crossing the 2 mile causeway!
The Island is cut off twice daily by fast incoming tides..

Meet.. Departure Time is Dependent On Tide Times Checked the Evening Before..
Car Share
Dispensary Street Short Stay Carpark
NE66 1LN (Near Morrisons)

*Leave cars at accommodation when car sharing

Alnwick to Holy Island Lindisfarne
Chare Ends Carpark
Berwick-upon-Tweed TD15 2SE
40 minute Drive 26 miles
Parking Costs: £10.50 Card / Coins / App
Toilets: 5 minute walk to Coach Carpark

*Google maps link will be posted on messages the evening before..

*Car sharing is recommended, it cuts down on cost of parking and number of cars when parking spaces are limited..
Please contribute your share of parking and petrol to the designated driver..

Holy Island of Lindisfarne is not a true island as it is connected to the mainland for about 12 hours a day by a causeway that is covered and uncovered by the tides.
The Holy Island of Lindisfarne is separated from the mainland by a vast system of saltmarshes and mudflats and is only accessible at low tide by a causeway (reached from the village of Beal), or by walking the Pilgrim’s Way.

The island sits in the heart of the Lindisfarne National Nature Reserve, an internationally important area providing food and shelter for specialist plants and migrating animals throughout the year. Shifting dunes, intertidal sand and mud flats, saltmarsh and ancient raised beaches attract vast numbers of shorebirds. As well as wildfowl, and the haunting calls of Grey Seals can be heard across the sands.

Brittle Star and Top Shells hide under the boulders on the rocky south-east shore, and the dunes provide ideal conditions for plants like Bloody Cranesbill, Viper’s Bugloss, and the unique Lindisfarne Helleborine to thrive.

In the spring and autumn, shorebirds including Bar-Tailed Godwit, Knot and Redshank can be seen on the mudflats.
Thrush and Warbler can be seen in the fields and gardens on the island. In the winter, thousands of Wigeon, Light-Bellied Brent Geese, Grey Plover and other important waders and waterfowl gather to feed and rest.

A monastery was founded on Holy Island in 635 by St Aidan. Lindisfarne became a centre of pilgrimage and place of learning as well as power, with the Lindisfarne Gospels, a masterpiece of early medieval art produced on the island in the early 700s.
St Mary's was built in the 12th century, both St Mary's and Lindisfarne Priory can be visited today.
The more recent history of the island is evident in the surviving buildings. Lindisfarne Castle stands high on a rocky outcrop.

The sea and tides are reflected in the structures seen around the island, from navigation beacons constructed in the 1820s on Ross Sands, Refuge Boxes on the Causeway, and Watch Towers on the Heugh.

Today, the island is home to a small community as well as being a special place that is enjoyed by hundreds of thousands of visitors every year.