Holy Island of Lindisfarne
Date: June 22nd 2024.
The Holy Island of Lindisfarne dates from approximately the seventh century when the Priory of Lindisfarne was founded. For half of the day it is an island being connected to the mainland by a narrow Causeway which is exposed at low tide. This means the time you can visit the island if travelling by car, or some people walk across, the sands, is limited, and the time and duration will vary due to the tides and the time of year.
I had been to Lindisfarne before, but in my previous visit I had not been able to visit the ruins of the Priory as I had not taken my English Heritage card with me. This time I made certain it was in my pocket. The village of Lindisfarne itself has a number of small side streets, with pretty little gardens and houses decorated with ornamental and wildflowers. The old Priory sits at the back of the village and as usual with many of the priories suffered at the hands of Henry VIII, and is now a ruin. From the village you walk down the street which leads out to the harbour, which although not impressive to look at, is renowned for the old upturned Herring, fishing vessels which have now been turned into sheds, and feature in many photographs of this area. I stopped to take pictures at the priory, and then wondered around the harbour area looking at pictures as well. On the far side of the harbour around the lay the Castle of Lindisfarne. This time it sat in a seam mist which was blowing in from the inner islands.
The weather was good, with a stiff sea breeze blowing the sea mist in. It made for interesting conditions to take photographs. Due to the time that I arrived everywhere was crowded. On my previous visit, I had been the first person there and had it to myself for a short while. This time, it was heaving with tourists.
From the photography perspective, the light was harsh and it was impossible to avoid the tourists. I tried to minimise the impact of the harsh light and the number of people around by carefully choosing the angles from which I was taking photographs.
My favourite photograph was a view of the harbour and the castle in the distance taken from inside the grounds of the old Priory. The photograph looked across the fields with a number of poppies in the foreground the harbour in the mid distance and the castle itself in the background of the photograph.
