Archaeologists to launch crowdfunded search for Lindisfarne monastery

Hopes excavation unearths remains predating priory ruins on island famous for St Cuthbert and Lindisfarne Gospels

Archaeologists are to launch a search on Holy Island in Northumberland for the monastery where one of the most beautiful books in western Europe, the Lindisfarne Gospels, was made.

The quest may puzzle tourists since the romantic priory ruins have been a magnet for artists and photographers for centuries. However the ruins, on an island connected by a causeway accessible only at low tide, date from early in the 12th century. The original monastery was founded by the Irish monk Aidan in 635 and sacked by the Vikings 160 years later.