Lindisfarne Wooden Stakes by Real World Art Wall Art Prints
Lindisfarne Wooden Stakes Gifts & Homewares
A winter afternoon on the rocky beach below Lindisfarne Castle on Holy Island, Northumberland (commonly referred to as just 'Lindisfarne') showing the rotten wooden stakes on the shoreline. Despite my efforts I cannot find out who put them there or why!
On a high outcrop of basalt and visible from miles around, it is not really a castle, but a 20th-century restoration of a Tudor fort created as a holiday home in 1902-3 for Edward Hudson, founder of Country Life magazine.
The first part of the fort to be built was an earthen bulwark, but it wasn't until the reign of Elizabeth I between 1565-1571 that proper defences were built in stone, using material from the ruins of nearby St Cuthbert's Priory. Lindisfarne Castle saw action only once, in 1715, when it was seized by supporters of James Stuart, the Old Pretender, although it was soon surrendered to government forces.
Holy Island itself is a tidal island joined to the mainland by a long causeway which is only accessible at low tide.