A place to stop, reflect and simply be... we hope to place recycled plastic wood effect benches and a paved walkway around the edge of the square where our iconic statue of Saint Aidan looks towards the ruins of the Benedictine Priory. Carved by by Kathleen Parbury in 1958 and recently restored the statue will become the focal point of a restful, comfortable and reflective space.

We are working on a new pilgrimage path called Saint Aidan’s Way. 

From the ‘first cathedral’ on Holy Island to the ‘new cathedral’ in Newcastle. 
A joint project with Newcastle cathedral and churches along the way. A walk that will take you from Holy island, through Bamburgh and then down the coast through Blyth and on into Newcastle. Through areas of deep beauty and deep deprivation. A way that echoes 
St Aidan’s values as inclusive peacemaker.

The parish church of St Mary's is a unique sanctuary of antiquity, beauty and peace. 
The church, monastery and school were founded by St Aidan in 635AD, the first Bishop of Lindisfarne. The English monks, who followed the first generation of Irish (via Scotland) replaced the wooden structure with a stone building, of which the foundations still lie beneath.

It is hard to imagine the influence and importance in historical and spiritual terms of this holy island, governed by the ebb and flow of the tides. Yet its missionary outreach throughout England was hugely significant, contributing largely to the spread of the Christian gospel through St Chad 
to the Midlands, St Cedd to the South East, St Hilda to Whitby, and St Ebba going North. Hence it earned the title ‘Cradle of Christianity’.

St Mary’s is a living, working church of the Church of England, in the Diocese of Newcastle. It serves not only the small Island population but the 500,000 pilgrims and visitors who visit each year. 

The present church is over 800 years old and is built over and around an earlier Saxon church which is likely to be the site of the first wooden church built by St. Aidan in 635.  

Our future plans include:

• Creating an ‘invisible’ kitchen area that blends in when not in use so that we can build on our ministry of hospitality.
  
  
• Making the church sustainably and economically warm and damp free 
  by installing a glass entranceway and improving our heating system.
  
  
  
• Improve our interpretation of the church, island Saints and the qualities that make our home the special, holy, ‘thin’ place that speaks to so many people today.