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WALK 4

Lindisfarne

Start/finish	First pay-and-display car park on the island (NU 126 424)
Distance	8.9km (5½ miles)
Total ascent	100m (328ft)
Grade	1
Walking time	2½hr
Terrain	Dunes, beaches and grassy foreshore; grassy path; short sections on road
Maps	OS Explorer 340; OS Landranger 75
Transport	Bus 477
Facilities	Several cafés and pubs on island; public toilets in smaller village car park

There’s so much more to Lindisfarne than most visitors to the tiny island realise. As well as a spectacular castle and one of the most important ecclesiastical sites in Britain, it is also the location of a massive dune system and, at low tide, vast white beaches with hardly a soul on them – truly uplifting places to wander. This walk completes a circuit of the island, exploring the secret dunes – part of a National Nature Reserve – before heading for the more popular attractions on the southern side of the island. Consult tide timetables before attempting to cross the causeway leading to the island. And don’t forget to bring your binoculars!

From the car park entrance, turn right along the road. Just before dropping to the causeway, take the footpath signposted through a gate on the right. With views over the causeway, a cropped-grass path runs beside a fence on the right at first. Bear left at a clear fork and then head northwest through the dunes to reach a lonely stretch of beach to the southwest of Back Skerrs. Heading east from here, you now have a choice: if the tide’s out, you can keep to the beach and the rocks at the back of the beach until the rocky headland of Snipe Point forces you back into the dunes, or you can keep to the dunes from the outset. There are lots of trails through the reserve – simply pick your route, staying as close to the sea as you can.

Lindisfarne National Nature Reserve covers a massive 3500 hectares. Rare orchids and butterflies thrive in the dunes, while, in the autumn, huge flocks of brent geese fly in from Svalbard to spend the winter on the salt marsh and mudflats.

Emmanuel Head from the beach at Sandham

From Snipe Point, you’ll be able to see the white pyramid at Emmanuel Head to the southeast. Make for this, crossing the beach at Sandham on the way. Even on a warm summer’s day, while visitors throng the castle and priory on the other side of the island, this beautiful stretch of sand is surprisingly quiet.

From Emmanuel Head, continue on the grassy path closest to the sea. This swings south to reach a wall corner. Turn right here and then, in 350m, go through the small gate on the left. Follow the raised path, known as the waggonway, along the eastern side of the island. It passes the bird hide beside The Lough – a good place to shelter on a wild day, or simply to watch the birds. As you head south, you can see the Farne Islands out at sea and Bamburgh Castle straight ahead. Watch for eider ducks as you near the sea again. These large, black-and-white sea ducks are sometimes known locally as Cuddy ducks, after St Cuthbert who forbade monks from eating or disturbing the birds. After passing through a gap in a wall, the waggonway swings right – making directly for Lindisfarne Castle. Crossing a bridge, it passes to the right of some substantial limekilns.

This complex and well-preserved set of limekilns was served by the waggonway along which you just walked. Limestone, quarried from the north of the island in the second half of the 19th century, was pulled in wheeled tubs to the kilns to be turned into quicklime. This was then exported to Scotland where it was used to make mortar, whitewash for walls and fertiliser.

The route passes directly below the castle’s northern ramparts and then out along the access lane.

Lindisfarne Castle was built as a fort in the middle of the 16th century, although it saw action only once – when it was briefly seized by Stuart supporters during the Jacobite Risings of 1715. It was rebuilt and refurbished in the Arts and Crafts style by the architect Edwin Lutyens between 1903 and 1906. Now owned by the National Trust, it was undergoing major restoration work at the time of writing.

Pass a small bay known as The Ouse. Drawing level with its western side, leave the lane by bearing left along the water’s edge. Nearing some wooden sheds, bear right, ascending a surfaced path. This swings right to head out on to The Heugh, a little ridge of the Great Whin Sill. With good views of the priory, head to the far end of the ridge and descend the rocky path. After a few benches, go through a kissing-gate on the right. A path leads up to a quiet lane – opposite the entrance to St Mary’s Church and a route into the priory grounds.

Lindisfarne Priory

LINDISFARNE PRIORY

A modern statue of St Aidan graces the site of the priory, but the island has become more closely associated with St Cuthbert. Briefly Bishop of Lindisfarne from AD685, he died in AD687. His body, miraculously undecayed 11 years after his death, caused the island to become a place of pilgrimage and strengthened its reputation as a place of great Christian learning.

In the early part of the 8th century the monks on the island, led by Bishop Eadrith, created the Lindisfarne Gospels. Lavishly illustrated and made from calfskin vellum, this masterpiece of early medieval art is now housed in the British Library in London. Its original bejewelled leather binding, replaced in the middle of the 19th century, is thought to have been lost during a Viking raid on the island.

Turn left along the lane. When you reach the school, turn left. Follow the fenced bridleway back towards the water’s edge and turn right. If the tide’s out, you can walk along the shore; if it’s in, you’ll have to keep close to the fence on the right, carefully negotiating the rabbit holes. On reaching the causeway road, turn right to return to the car park.