[1] It was considered by later sources as "The Yellow Plague of 664" and said to have lasted for twenty or twenty-five years, causing widespread mortality, social disruption and abandonment of religious faith.
In the same year, a sudden pestilence depopulated first the southern parts of Britain, and afterwards attacking the province of the Northumbrians, ravaged the country far and near, and destroyed a great multitude of men.
The Scots willingly received them all, and took care to supply them with daily food without cost, as also to furnish them with books for their studies, and teaching free of charge.
[3]According to Adomnan of Iona, a contemporary Irish abbot and saint, the plague ravaged most of the British Isles excepting a large part of modern Scotland.
The wife of King Ecgfrith, Etheldreda, died with a tumor that released a "noxious moisture",[8] another possible instance of the Black Plague in Ireland.