ABSTRACT
The Holy Island of Lindisfarne and its surrounding marine wetlands is an important wildlife area for coastal habitats and wintering wildfowl. Most of the area is a National Nature Reserve and a Wetland of International Importance designated under the Ramsar Convention. The island has been a Christian holy site and pilgrimage centre since AD 635, and has played a pivotal role as a ‘cradle’ of Christianity in northern England and southern Scotland. Nature and spirituality are very much linked here through a line of ‘Nature Saints’ of which St Cuthbert is best known in the area. He has been considered by some as England's first ‘nature conservationist’. The spiritual values of the island are mostly associated with these saints, the places linked with them and the relationship with the island and its wildlife. The island has a small resident community of 150 people and a number of active Christian groups including Anglican, United Reformed Church and Catholic. More recently it has become a node in the revival of Celtic Christianity, an indigenous, if somewhat contested, type of Christianity where the spiritual values of nature are overtly expressed. The majority of visitors to the island are day trippers, while recent years have seen an increasing number of pilgrimages. Visitors are now estimated in excess of half a million people per year and this number has been increasing over recent years, reflecting trends including an increasing interest in both nature and spirituality.
