Farne Islands
| Farne Islands | ||
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| Waters | North Sea | |
| Geographical location | 55 ° 38 ′ N , 1 ° 38 ′ W | |
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| Number of islands | 15 to 20 | |
| Main island | Inner ferns | |
| Total land area | 0.967 km² | |
| Residents | uninhabited | |
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The Farne Islands (English: Farne Islands , The Farnes for short ) are an uninhabited group of islands on the Northumberland coast in north-east England .
geography
The archipelago consists of 15 to 20 small islands, depending on the tide , with a total area of 96.7 hectares . They are between 2.5 and 7.5 kilometers from the mainland. The closest place on the mainland is Bamburgh , the nearest seaport in Seahouses .
The Farne Islands consist of two groups, the Inner Group and the Outer Group , separated by the Staple Sound . The largest island of the Inner Group and the closest island to the mainland is Inner Farne, also called Farne Island or Inner Farne Island, the largest island of the Outer Group is Staple Island. The highest point is 19 meters above sea level on Inner Farne.
geology
The Farne Islands are largely made up of dolerite surrounded by softer rock. After the sea level rose, it was washed away, giving the Farne Islands their current form. Around the islands there are up to 20 meters long, upright rock pillars , so-called stacs .
Some of the islands have a thin layer of clay and peat so there is vegetation there. There are permanent deposits of bird droppings on numerous rocks.
history
The first inhabitants of the Farne Islands were Culdeer , who lived there in relative safety. In the 7th and 8th centuries, the largest of these islands, Inner Farne, served as a retreat and hermitage for monks from Lindisfarne Monastery . According to the story of Beda Venerabilis ( Hist. Eccl. III, 16), even the founder of Lindisfarne, St. Aidan , is said to have withdrawn into solitude on Inner Farne for prayer and silence, and on one of these occasions during the year 642 saw from there how the city of Bamburgh was sacked by King Penda on the opposite coast . The most famous hermit on Inner Farne after Aidan was St. Cuthbert , who lived on the island for nine years, from 676 to 685, then went to Lindisfarne as abbot in 685, but returned to Inner Farne at the end of 686 and there on March 20 687 died.
Cuthbert was followed by Æthelwald, previously a monk of Ripon , who lived on the island for twelve years from 687 until his death. His hermitage was taken over by a hermit named Felgeld, who at the age of more than seventy was still living on the island around 720 when Beda wrote his Prosavita of St. Cuthbert. The hermitage was abandoned at the time the monks of Lindisfarne withdrew from their island before the attacks by the Vikings (875–1182?). During this period, around 1100, the island is said to have been visited by an Edulf from Lindisfarne, who found the hermit's chapel neglected and polluted with sheep dung, as the island was used as pasture during the summer months and the shepherds had used the chapel as a sheepfold . At the beginning of the 12th century an Ælric from Durham settled there again with a servant named Reginald. He was followed by an Ælwin, who was joined by St. Bartholomew from Durham in 1150 , and who left the island after a dispute with him. A few years later (1162?), Thomas, Abbot of Durham, also retired to Inner Farne with a servant named Heming after his resignation. There was also a temporary dispute between Thomas and Bartholomew, which is why the latter temporarily went to Durham, but then returned and reconciled with Thomas. Thomas died on the island in 1163, Bartholomew died there in 1193.
Since Bartholomew's time, the monks of Durham on Inner Farne seem to have run a kind of settlement called the House of Farne , the directors of which have been known by name since the mid-13th century, and of which St. Cuthbert's Chapel, built around 1300 (St .-Cuthbert Chapel) still testifies. The small community lived from fishing, sold the surplus and also used the eggs and down of the eider duck breeding on the islands , for whose protection St. Cuthbert is said to have already established rules. The literary testimony of the community includes a collection of meditations (around 1350?) By a learned monk who had studied at Oxford and possibly also was familiar with the Lindisfarne monastery library, as well as a Latin poem from the 13th or 14th century, which uses descriptions of island life, motifs from the life of St. Cuthbert and the biblical story of poor Lazarus to encourage the reader to contemplate.
Around 1500 the Pele Tower was built on Inner Farne , which is still used for overnight stays today. Hundreds of shipwrecks lie in the waters around the Farne Islands. As a result, two lighthouses were built, one on Inner Farne (1809) and one on Longstone in the Outer Group . In 1838, Grace Darling (1815–1842), daughter of the lighthouse keeper on Longstone, achieved national fame because she was instrumental in rescuing seafarers after an accident. Today the British National Trust looks after the archipelago.
Flora and fauna
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While the flora is poor in species, the Farne Islands are known for the wide variety of seabirds that breed there in large numbers. They include puffins , guillemots , arctic terns, and shags . In addition, around 6,000 gray seals live there .
Wild rabbits live on some of the islands . The species was once introduced to ensure the meat supply.
tourism
Inner Farne, Staple Island and Longstone can be reached by boat from Seahouses. Entering the other islands is prohibited for nature conservation reasons. There are also tours that allow you to see some of the wildlife from the water without entering the islands.
The Farne Islands are popular for diving because of the wrecks, gray seals and steep coastline .
literature
- Rupert O. Matthews: Great Britain. Beauty and tradition. Karl Müller, Erlangen 1995, ISBN 3-86070-120-7 , pp. 70-71
- Richard Sharpe: An Exortacio ad contemplationem from Farne Island. In: Medium Aevum 54.2 (1985), pp. 159-177
Web links
- Information on the Farne Islands National Trust (English)
- Tourist information on the Farne Islands (English)