The Holy Island walk on the 18th July is the second walk around Holy Island this weekend. This time, we had a larger, but still great, group of walkers.
The start
We met in the car park on Holy Island, well before the tide covered the causeway. This time, we decided not to walk down to the causeway to see the tide come in. We were now stranded on the island, until the tide went out, again. As with the previous day, we started the walk from the car park.
Lindisfarne Castle
We walked uphill and around the outside of Lindisfarne Castle. The Castle has recently undergone a £3 million restoration. Unfortunately, it was still closed.
It was a nice day, so we paused here to enjoy the views of the harbour and Guile Point across the bay.
Castle Point Lime Kilns
After the Castle, we came to the Lindisfarne Castle Lime Kilns at Castle Point, which are a Scheduled Ancient Monument. They are some of the largest examples of their kind anywhere in the country and certainly the largest actively-conserved kilns in the area.
They are not open at the moment. But, usually you can walk around the kilns. If you are brave, you can squeeze through one of the openings and look upwards.
Even the rocky beach was closed off, as plovers were nesting.
Gertrude Jekyll Garden
After following the path around the coastline, where we watched more seals having fun, we made our way to the Gertrude Jekyll garden.
The garden was in full bloom of bright yellow and purple flowers including pale yellow eyed grass, crown daisy and golden marguerite.
There is a tree on one side of the garden. It looks like an olive tree but one of other visitors here told us that it is sea buckthorn. Not as exotic as we thought.
Gertrude Jekyll, the Arts and Crafts garden designer, writer and artist created this small walled garden in 1911 alongside Edwin Lutyens. He nicknamed her “Bumps”, supposedly in relation to her figure.
There is a plain stone just outside of the entrance of the garden. There is no information available, but Martin kept up the pretence which had started on Friday and told everyone that it was where Gertrude sat to look at her garden.
The Lough
As we walked North along the old wagonway we came to The Lough, part of the Nature Reserve. We were still watching seals as well as lots of birds but still no dolphins.
Emmanuel Head
Emmanuel Head was our lunch stop. Martin had brought some of his latest goodies for everyone to try.
Emmanual Head is a white pyramid which is visible around the island. This is a day marker to direct boats towards the deep channel and into the harbour. The pyramid was built around 1810 and is 45 feet tall. The group sat on the grass and enjoyed our lunch, while watching the many seals. Still no dolphins though. There were lots of sea birds, including the common eider duck, also known as St Cuthbert’s duck or Cuddy’s duck.
Continuing on
We followed the footpath and coastline, admiring the flora on our way and teased with the beautiful small beaches. We walked down to Coves Haven Beach, where the clearness of the water is amazing.
The beach looked almost mediterranean. The azure sky, clear blue water and lovely sandy beach were gorgeous.
The dunes
We walked through the dunes and came acrossthe ruined chapel. There was a lot of excitement as there was a huge bank of sand and the temptation to run down it was too much for Rebecca, Anne, Kirsten and Rob. Rebecca and Anne decided to take the slightly easier way up by the grass bank. meanwhile Kirsten and Rob went directly up the sand bank.
Anne was first down, Rebecca followed. Rob then decided to jump and try to slide down, followed by Kirsten. They all enjoyed their little moment of silliness.
Back to the Pilgrim’s Causeway and the tide was still over the area where we usually walk. Everyone took all the piri piri burrs off their shoes and trousers to stop transfer from the Island.
We made our way to the Manor House Hotel for refreshments both alcoholic and non alcoholic.
Everybody enthused about the walk and the day. Many of them had never been around the whole island and agreed they would like to do it again.
Thank you
Thank you for coming along. We hope you enjoyed the walk and see you all soon
Julie and Martin x
If you enjoyed the Holy Island walk, why not take a look at our other walks.
Gallery – Holy Island 18th July
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