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Car prepares to cross the causeway to Lindisfarne as Rich takes its picture in case we lose it in the mud and it’s never seen again.

We took the car north. A long way north. Basically to the hump-back bit of where England almost turns into Scotland.

(Well, actually, we went further than that, as we spent the morning in Berwick Upon Tweed, which looked far prettier from a train speeding over the impressive brick viaduct than it does up close, and then drove two minutes up to and over the border just so we could say we’d done it. That’s not the point of this post, though - this one is about Lindisfarne.)

Lindisfarne - also known as Holy Island - is more famous for its gospels and saints than it is for the small, slightly ugly castle that sits at one end, or the twee little village that marks the half-way point between the causeway and the fortress. As such, it’s still a feature on the pilgrimage trail, and as we crossed the narrow road that opens up as the tides recede, we could look out at the stakes that marks out the safe pilgrimage walking route across the three miles of mud flats.

Nobody was risking it today, but plenty had come by car, despite the fact this is still - technically - low season. I dread to think what it would be like at the height of summer.

So, we pulled up in the car park like everyone else, dumped the car and set off by foot to explore. It’s all very twee, with cosy little houses, a twisty little village centre and, in the middle of it all, the priory, half of which came second in the battle with age and decay.

Walking around the southern and eastern shorelines we passed by a tiny outlying island on which someone had planted a large cross, then by the memorial to the three islanders killed in the war, the boat yard where old hulls had been turned upside down and used as sheds, and the flocks of sheep that grazed the rocky heath leading down to the sea.

Eventually we found ourselves at the castle.

Lindisfarne castle

The National Trust describes it as ‘romantic’, and from a distance that’s probably true. Up close, though, it’s a rocky hulk that could give a Second World War pillbox a run for its money.

It was closed when we got there, so couldn’t look inside, but I don’t think we missed much. Instead we walked around the headland, clambered up on some rocks to get a better look at the sheep and then walked slowly back to the car by way of the tack-filled tourist shop for a leisurely pootle home.

Except we didn’t go straight home. The journey south took us by Gateshead, so we detoured to look at Anthony Gormley’s Angel of the North. I’d dismissed this out of hand in the past, perhaps rashly, after seeing it through the window of a slightly speeding train and dismissing it as a bit crap. I was so wrong.

The Angel of the North

Up close it’s enormous. If you stand beside it the top of your head is in line with the top of its feet, and the wing span is slightly larger than a jumbo jet. It stands on a hill that encases massive foundations, 20 metres deep and weighing 165 tons, that help it withstand winds of over 100 miles an hour.

As you walk around it, it would appear to keep changing size. Sometimes it is a towering beast, and sometimes quite manageable and moderate.

I’m very glad that I had a change to rethink my opinion of it, though, as it would be a shame to have stuck with my original judgement - particularly as I thought it compared so poorly to the brilliant Event Horizon, his 31 statues that are lining the South Bank until August.

They’re positioned on the edges of high buildings, looking down on you with a disinterested, vacant pose, as though they are some kind of automaton preparing to take over the city.

They’re apparently causing the police some headaches, though. As Reuters reports,

Since the 31 life-sized replicas of Gormley’s naked body went up in early May, police have been bombarded with telephone calls from members of the public reporting that they had spotted a would-be suicide jumper.

“We had several calls a day in the early stages and are now receiving two or three a day,” a police spokeswoman said.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 27th, 2007 at 10:23 pm and is filed under Journal. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.