Wednesday Walk - Around the Island of Lindisfarne (Holy Island) in North East England

We had an epic wednesday walk today - 6 hours around the Island of Lindisfarne, also called Holy Island, just of the North East Cast of England. It is connected to the mainland by a tidal causeway, and the way the tides worked today meant that when we got there in the morning we would not be able to get back until late afternoon - so we spent all day walking the island !

Its called Holy Island because it was an early centre of Christianity when it first came to Britain. The Abbey on the island is quite spectacular, although Henry the 8th decided to put an end to it (like all other abbeys in the land) when he fell out with the Pope (in around 1533) - hence the ruin you see today.

We started of our walk by heading towards the castle, but stopped of at the bay above to play skimmers (skimming stones across the water !).

We then made our way towards the Castle.

And were treated to beautiful sea views all the way, including seeing seals and a lot of seabirds.

The tour guide explained to us that the Castle isnt really a castle, but an old Fort from when England was at war with the French, which was then bought in the late 1900s and turned into a holiday home 'castle'.

The castle was small inside but done nicely - as can be seen by the dining room above !

The views over the island from the castle were quite spectacular, with the weather lending a helping hand !

We then made our way to a set of old lime kilns by the castle - above you can see one of the vents.

It is way pretty cool to be able to wander through the kilns, and get out of the sun !

From the kiln we went to the east shore which was full of stone stacks !

We found a nice piece of drift wood and added it into our stack just for effect - atleast it kept the kids busy for 20mins.

From there, there was a stop in at a walled garden, and then on into town for lunch.

After lunch we went towards the abbey and saw the statue of St Aidan.

Although a ruin, the Abbey is beautiful - it is built in red sandstone giving it a lovely pink hue.

Then it was off to the harbour, before heading back to the car to pick up towels for the kids to go paddling.

The island has a tradition of turning the hulls of old boats into sheds, as can be see by the one above which is located down in the harbour area - they look lovely !

We then chilled out by the straits waiting for the tide to fall before we could get back to land.

So it was a long day, but we saw a ton of stuff and put in about 18,000 steps - so we are all knackered now, but we thoroughly enjoyed the day and the glorious weather !

So thats my wednesday walk for the week, and now I'm looking forward to seeing all the pictures from all the other walks from around the world !