Walk around Holy Island – Northumberland, England

A beautiful dog friendly walk around Holy Island of Lindisfarne in Northumberland. This walk allows to discover the island and Lindisfarne Castle.

Information to do the walk around Holy Island:

  • Distance: 7 km
  • Duration: 2h
  • Ascent: 10m
  • Level: Easy
  • Car Park: Car park on the north side of Holy Island village (TD15 2SG). Grid ref. NU 127 421. Fees apply
  • Dog Friendly: Yes but must be on lead when crossing fields with sheep. Dog are not allowed inside Lindisfarne Castle.
  • Safe crossing hours can be seen on the Island website.
View of Northumberland coast
View of Northumberland Coast

I am continuing my series of blog posts about our summer holiday in Northumberland with this walk around Holy Island of Lindisfarne.

Find all our blog posts about Northumberland here.

Lindisfarne priory

I had heard and read so many things about this island that it was at the top of my list of places I wanted to visit during our stay on the Northumberland coast.

Lindisfarne Priory
Lindisfarne Priory

After looking carefully at the safe crossing times and the weather forecast, we decided that we will go on the Thursday. We were lucky because the weather was great and it was popular but still too much tourists.

Little harbour

The crossing on the Lindisfarne causeway is quite impressive and gorgeous. There are several small car parks along the causeway but we decided to drive up to the village to park at the big car park, which was nearly full.

Beach of the harbour

After gearing up, we went exploring the village by roaming around the little streets before heading towards Lindisfarne Priory. From there we walk toward the war memorial and Osborne’s Fort. The views of the Northumberland coast from there is incredible. Well worth the detour.

Lindisfarne Castle

We then decided to walk down towards the little harbour to find the touristy path going to Lindisfarne Castle. The rocky edge of the castle was beautiful at this time of the year with all the flowers blooming. It was definitely were we saw most of the tourists.

Shore

After passing by the side of the castle (that we didn’t visit as it is not dog friendly) we continued towards the Castle Point Lime Killns and the shore. As we still had plenty of time before the end of the safe crossing, we decided to do the walk around the island. So we followed the coastal path towards the Lough tarn and bird hide before going inland to join the causeway on the other side of the island.

Walking inland

This walk wasn’t very touristy as most of the tourists only walk from the village to the castle and back, which was very good because we could explore at our pace and really enjoy the beauty of the island. We all enjoyed exploring Holy Island and would definitely recommend it to everyone.

Have you visited Holy Island of Lindisfarne?

Find all our travels in the United Kingdom in this page.

34 thoughts on “Walk around Holy Island – Northumberland, England

  1. The trouble with Holy Island is that it does get packed with tourists – between the tides. We were lucky to have stayed on the island for a night after our walk on St Cuthbert’s Way. It was very different once the tide had come in and the day visitors had disappeared across the causeway. There weren’t so many of us left and we were able to explore a peaceful island.

    Liked by 2 people

Leave a reply to Louise Jayne Cancel reply