Lindisfarne Priory, Holy Island, Northumberland
This is the site of the pre-Conquest monastery founded around AD 634 by Aidan. He was a missionary bishop of Iona. It was founded in the Celtic Christian tradition. After the Synod of Whitby in AD 664 it was forced to followe Western Christianity as set by the Church of Canterbury. In AD 793 it became the scene of the first Viking raid on England. According to records, the monastery was sacked and most of its monks killed. However, the succession of bishops and abbots continued until AD 875 when the community fled before a second Viking onslaught. In 1081, the site became the property of the Benedictine priory and convent of Durham. It was refounded as a cell of the cathedral monastery. This is when the present priory was built in c1093. The priory was dissolved in 1537. This site is now in the care of English Heritage (2010).
