It was founded at Gilling in what is currently North Yorkshire[1] by Queen Eanflæd, the wife of King Oswiu of Northumbria, who persuaded her husband to found it at the site where Oswiu had killed a rival and kinsman, King Oswine of Deira.
[3] Under the laws of the time, the only way Eanflæd could take revenge for her cousin's death was to kill her husband or accept a substantial gift known as a weregild.
[5] By founding the monastery shortly after Oswine's death,[6] Oswiu and Eanflæd avoided the creation of a feud.
[13] It is unknown whether the depopulation of the monastery from the plague meant the end of the religious community at Gilling, or if it continued to exist after that.
An alternative location of Gilling East, Yorkshire has been proposed by historians Richard Morris and Ian Wood.