[3] Holy Island has a recorded history from the 6th century AD; it was an important centre of Celtic Christianity under Saints Aidan, Cuthbert, Eadfrith, and Eadberht of Lindisfarne.

[citation needed] Points of interest for visitors included Lindisfarne Castle operated by the National Trust,[15] the priory, the historic church, the nature reserve and the beaches.

[24] Warning signs urge visitors walking to the island to keep to the marked path, to check tide times and weather carefully, and to seek local advice if in doubt.

The monastery of Lindisfarne was founded around 634 by the Irish monk Aidan, who had been sent from Iona off the west coast of Scotland to Northumbria at the request of King Oswald.

Under a new line of bishops aligned with Canterbury Lindisfarne became the base for Christian evangelism in the North of England, and also sent a successful mission to Mercia.

In the second half of the 10th century, a monk named Aldred added an Old English gloss to the Latin text, producing the earliest surviving Old English/Northumbrian copies of the Gospels.

The Gospels were written with a good hand, but it is the illustrations, done in an insular style containing a fusion of Celtic, Germanic and Roman elements, that are considered to be of the most value.

According to Aldred, Eadfrith's successor Æthelwald was responsible for pressing and binding the book, before it was covered with a fine metal case made by a hermit known as Billfrith.

There had been other Viking raids, but according to English Heritage this one was particularly significant, because "it attacked the sacred heart of the Northumbrian kingdom, desecrating 'the very place where the Christian religion began in our nation'".

Idus Ianuarii, earmlice hæþenra manna hergunc adilegode Godes cyrican in Lindisfarnaee þurh hreaflac ⁊ mansliht.

[49] ("In this year fierce, foreboding omens came over the land of the Northumbrians, and the wretched people shook; there were excessive whirlwinds, lightning, and fiery dragons were seen flying in the sky.

These signs were followed by great famine, and a little after those, that same year on 6th ides of January, the ravaging of wretched heathen men destroyed God's church at Lindisfarne.

[54] Many monasteries were established on islands, peninsulas, river mouths and cliffs, as isolated communities were less susceptible to interference and the politics of the heartland.

[60] Prior to the 9th century, Lindisfarne Abbey had, in common with other such establishments, held large tracts of land which were managed directly or leased to farmers with a life interest only.

[61] Once the region had been restored to political and military stability under the government of William the Conqueror, the prospects for the rebuilding of the island's monastery began to improve.

Although his body by then had been relocated in Durham Cathedral, the place of his former primary shrine on Lindisfarne was still considered by many to be sacred ground and continued to draw pilgrims.

As such, the island's restored but slightly smaller Benedictine monastery (sized as a priory under Norman rule) was then able to continue in relative peace under the new Norman monarchy and its successor royal houses for the next four centuries until its final dissolution in 1536 as a result of Henry VIII's dissolution of the English church's ties to Rome, and his subsequent closing of the monasteries.

In the 20th century (c. 1980~1990), religious author and cleric David Adam reported that he had ministered to thousands of pilgrims and other visitors as rector of Holy Island.

[65] The priory ruins which make for a popular tourist and pilgrimage destination, were built just after the Norman conquest, and date back to nearly 1,000 years ago.

Artefacts of note recovered included a rare board game piece,[68] copper-alloy rings and Anglo-Saxon coins from both Northumbria and Wessex.

The group also found evidence of an early medieval building, "which seems to have been constructed on top of an even earlier industrial oven" which was used to make copper or glass.

[71] As well as supplying food for the monastic community, the island's fisheries (together with those of nearby Farne) provided the mother house at Durham with fish, on a regular (sometimes weekly) basis.

Crinoid columnals, a certain type of intricate fossil with a hole in the middle which is sometimes found in limestone, were separated from the quarried stone and then milled smooth into beads.

[83] These upturned boats near the foreshore provided the inspiration for Spanish architect Enric Miralles' Scottish Parliament Building in Edinburgh.

Sir John Harington and the Master Mason of Berwick started to plan to build two earth bulwarks, although the Rutland advised the use of stone from the priory.

[103] The castle was refurbished in the Arts and Crafts style by Sir Edwin Lutyens for the editor of Country Life, Edward Hudson.

[105] Trinity House operates two alignment beacons (which it lists as lighthouses) to guide vessels entering Holy Island Harbour.

[106] Until 1 November 1995 both alignment beacons were operated by Newcastle-upon-Tyne Trinity House (a separate corporation, which formerly had responsibility for navigation marks along the coast from Berwick-upon-Tweed to Whitby).

[111][page needed] Local news and television programmes are provided by BBC North East and Cumbria and ITV Tyne Tees.

Lindisfarne was the location for filming of director Roman Polanski's 1966 comedy thriller Cul-de-sac (starring Donald Pleasence, Françoise Dorléac, Lionel Stander and Jack MacGowran).