DigVentures is searching for the monastery at the heart of Anglo-Saxon Northumbria. After three seasons of excavation, we're starting to piece together the evidence...
Sitting on a small tidal island opposite the famous Bamburgh Castle, King Oswald chose Lindisfarne as the place to establish a monastery in AD 635. But it was no ordinary monastery: it quickly grew to become the golden heart of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Northumbria.
Made famous by chroniclers like Bede and Alcuin (and more recently by the popular TV show Vikings), it’s where the Lindisfarne Gospels were illustrated, where the treasures that adorned the altars of early Medieval Europe were forged, and where thousands of miracle-seeking pilgrims came to seek healing. Lindisfarne’s power and influence reached deep into the heart of continental Europe, and was described by Alcuin as ‘the most venerable place in Britain’.
But archaeologists still have some very big questions to answer: where exactly was it, and does any evidence still survive?
Over the last two years, hundreds of crowdfunders have helped us find some tantalising evidence, including several early Christian burials, Anglo-Saxon sculptures and monumental buildings very similar to those at other important early Medieval monastic sites like Hartlepool.
It’s clear that we’ve now located a significant part of this missing monastery, but there’s plenty left to find.
Support this dig and you can excavate alongside our team, join us in the Finds Lab, or follow our progress online as we uncover one of England’s most iconic Anglo-Saxon sites and piece its story back together.
Lindisfarne’s early monastery sat right at the heart of Northumbria’s Anglo-Saxon power and politics. It was a major population centre, a hub of cultural influence, and a place of fusion between the Roman and Irish religious worlds.
Now that we’ve located a significant part of the site, we need to recover and record its remains. A lot of evidence survives, and by supporting this dig, you can help us begin the delicate process of recovering it.
The archaeology we’re poised to unearth in 2018 has the potential to offer huge insight into the lives of those who lived through Lindisfarne’s golden age, endured the Viking attacks and witnessed this transformative period in English history.
Some of the discoveries our crowdfunders made are so significant that they featured in the Guardian, The Times, The Daily Mail and on BBC4’s Digging For Britain programme – this was the very first time any crowdfunded discovery had been featured on the show. And they’re just the tip of the iceberg.
We found several Anglo-Saxon burials, a namestone, a monumental wall, the outline of several early medieval buildings, plenty of pottery, and a silver coin minted during the reign of King Eadberht, as well as some curious bone artefacts which seem to be proof that some people continued to live on the island long after the monastery was supposedly abandoned.
Lindisfarne is one of the most iconic sites in England’s Anglo-Saxon history. Having been missing for over 1,000 years, we’ve now located a significant part of it.
Only a full-blown excavation can now uncover the rest of it, and put this iconic site back on the map.
In September 2018, we’ll continue the search for King Oswald’s monastery. The excavation is set to take place over two and a half weeks including:
Now that we’ve located a significant part of the monastery, our plan is to use this time to:
We’re also changing the way archaeology is done, sharing the results and discoveries so that you can watch as we make them.
We need to raise £30,000 to carry out our excavation, analyse everything we find, and make the results available online. By supporting the dig, you will be helping us to:
PLEASE NOTE: We will be communicating with you on the email address you use for your purchase. If you haven’t heard from us, please check your junk or spam folder.
As soon as you make a contribution to the campaign, you’ll get a payment confirmation.
We’ll then follow up with a welcome email thanking you for your contribution, and (where relevant) to request a little bit more information about things like preferred dig dates, or details for your chosen reward, like t-shirt sizes etc.
You’ll need to reply to this welcome email as soon as you can to make sure we have all the details we need to get you booked in.
If you’re digging with us, we will send you an Info Pack with more information about the site, what to bring and joining instructions closer to the time.
If you need to book travel and accommodation, we’ve provided some hints and tips in the following FAQs.
Our dig experiences include all the tools, training and one-to-one instruction you will need in order to learn and have a great time whilst you are on site with our team. You will also receive an Info Pack and suggested bibliography for the site, post-excavation updates and a copy of the Final Report when it is published.
Travel and accommodation are not included, however there is a list of links and helpful information provided below. We’ve got tea breaks covered, however you will need to bring your own lunch and plenty of water.
We’ll send everything in May at the start of the 2018 field season.
You’ll then start getting all your digital goodies (like videos updates and virtual artefacts) as soon as the dig begins!
The dig runs for two and a half weeks, including:
If you are joining for two weeks, you can start your dig experience on Tuesday 4th September.
If you are joining for a week, you can start your dig experience on Tuesday 4th, or Tuesday 11th September.
If you are joining for one or two days, you can start your dig experience on Tuesday 4th or Thursday 6th September.
Everything else is now fully booked.
If you don’t want to dig, but do want to help out in the Finds Lab, you can join us in the second week of the dig:
You can start your lab experience on Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday (fully booked) or Sunday.
Holy Island, Lindisfarne, Northumberland. We’ll send you more information once you’ve signed up.
Accommodation isn’t included, so you can shoose to stay wherever suits you best in terms of locaiton and budget.
A quick search online will reveal that there’s plenty to choose from, from holiday parks and self-catering cottages, to B&Bs and hotels – something to suite every budget!
It’s important to note that Lindisfarne is a very popular tourist destination and accommodation gets booked up extremely quickly.
If you’re coming to dig with us, we recommend that you book your accommodation for the dig as soon as possible. Here’s a few suggestions:
Hotels, Guest Houses and B&Bs
There are many places to rent a room on Holy Island. A good place to start looking for a place to stay is: https://www.lindisfarne.org.uk/accommodation.htm
On the mainland there are many places to choose from. The closest accommodation to the island is the Lindisfarne Inn: http://www.lindisfarneinn.co.uk, but a simple online search will turn up many options in the area.
Camping
There is strictly no camping allowed on Lindisfarne, but there are some great camp sites nearby on the mainland.
Some of the DigVentures team will be at the Barn at Beal: http://barnatbeal.com/camping/ .
We also recommend Budle Bay Campsite: http://www.budlebaycampsite.co.uk/
You’ll need to make sure that you can get to Lindisfarne for a morning start – remember to check the tide tables! We will be flexing the start/finsih times for each day around the tides, so don’t worry that you’ll be missing anything. If you’re staying off-island, you won’t be the only one!
And remember you’ll need to bring your own lunches, or cash to buy some from a local cafe.
Anyone can come and visit! If you’ve supported the dig and give us a heads up, we might even be able to squeeze you onto one of our VIP tours.
We are the only field school officially accredited by the Chartered Institute for Archaeologists in the UK.
We also offer a special discount rate for students – just look for the ‘Student’ benefit level.
If you’re digging with us, we’ll send you more specific joining instructions closer to the time.
We can either transfer your dig days to another excavation, or you can bequeath them to someone else… go on, pass on the archaeology love!
Archaeology isn’t only outdoors! If the weather’s truly terrible, we can head to the archaeology lab to work on the finds… cleaning, examining and identifying the things we’ve found so far.
This dig has also received plenty of support from Durham University, and from the Heritage Lottery Fund.
Crowdfunding isn’t the only way you can help. Even just sharing our campaign on social media could introduce us to someone else who wants to support the dig!
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