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In my previous two columns I explored some of the great religious buildings of Britain; these are primarily known for their medieval and later histories, and for their towering urban architecture. This month, I will move back in time to explore some of the great sites associated with the early church that have been visited by Current Archaeology over the decades. Usually found in more remote locations, they boast rich archaeological and ecclesiastical histories dating back to the 6th and 7th centuries AD. By way of introduction, two articles in the magazine, published 54 years apart, provide a wider insight into the early history of the church in the north of Britain and how archaeological evidence has informed the understanding of this history – both are well worth a read: CA 3 (July 1967) and CA 373 (April 2021). The excellent introduction to monastic hermitages in CA 400 (July 2023) pairs well with these articles.
Iona
The succession of monastic settlements on Iona, an island in the Inner Hebrides of Scotland, are both the oldest and the greatest of the sites visited this month. Founded in AD 563 by St Columba (521-597), the monastery there suffered repeated Viking attacks across the late 8th and early 9th centuries. It was then (allegedly) abandoned before being refounded by the Benedictines in 1203, dissolved during the Scottish Reformation of the mid-16th century, and refounded for a final time in 1938. Current Archaeology took its time about visiting Iona, with the first proper mention only coming in CA 247 (October 2010) when a full geophysical survey was undertaken, a remarkably recent piece of work considering the site’s significance. Since that time, though, there have been repeated and detailed examinations of Iona in the magazine, appearing in CA 292 (July 2014), CA 378 (September 2021), and CA 381 (December 2021). The first of these visits, made at the time of the 1,450th anniversary of Iona’s foundation, tells its rich history through an archaeological lens; the second examines its medieval carved stones and grave slabs; and the third looks again at its Viking Age history, including the question of how ‘abandoned’ the site really was in the 9th century.
Importantly, any study of Iona made through the pages of Current Archaeology highlights other sites of interest across Scotland, thanks to the magazine’s long history and excellent digital archive (see ‘Discover old issues’ box below for more information about accessing the archive). A sequence of lesser-known monastic sites emerge, equally important in the early history of Christianity. There is, for example, Govan Old Church in modern-day central Glasgow, where the earliest Christian activity began in the 5th-6th century and which rose to prominence in the 9th-10th centuries. The church there houses an internationally significant collection of early medieval sculpture dating to the 9th-11th centuries, and Current Archaeology has covered the site in issues 198 (July 2005), 351 (June 2019), and 398 (May 2023).
In stark environmental contrast, Portmahomack, a small fishing village in Easter Ross on the Tarbat Peninsula, is the site of the first confirmed Pictish monastery in Scotland, which began around AD 550 and was destroyed by fire around 800. CA 205 (September 2006), CA 321 (December 2016), and CA 365 (August 2020) explored its unfolding secrets in the fields surrounding St Colman’s church. Even more remote is the Isle of May in the Firth of Forth, home to discoveries linked to the little-known St Ethernan, a 7th-century Scottish martyr and saint believed to be buried on the island; they were described in CA 161 (February 1999). CA 244 (July 2010), meanwhile, examined a similar site on the Isle of Mull (the second largest island of the Inner Hebrides off the west coast of Scotland), when a Celtic-style monastic settlement dating to the 7th century was surveyed by Time Team.
The discovery of Scotland’s first confirmed Pictish monastery at Portmahomack on the Tarbat Peninsula was detailed in CA 205.
Lindisfarne
The island of Lindisfarne, off the coast of Northumbria, is well known, with people flocking there to visit the monastic site and nearby castle, as well as to enjoy the wider area’s rich wildlife and coastline. Its priory was founded around AD 634 by the Irish monk St Aidan (590-651), who had been sent from Iona at the request of King Oswald of Northumbria (604-641/642). Most famously associated with St Cuthbert (634-687), who served as its abbot between 684 and 686, the monastery (like that at Iona) suffered repeated Viking attacks, commencing in 793. With the eventual collapse of the Northumbrian kingdom, the monks of Lindisfarne fled the island in 875, taking with them St Cuthbert’s bones, which are now buried at Durham Cathedral, as was discussed in last month’s column. Durham re established a monastery on the island in 1093 as a smaller priory, which was then dissolved in 1536.
Current Archaeology has run surprisingly few features about Lindisfarne, given its cultural significance, a sign of how limited archaeological fieldwork had been until recent years. The first sustained mentions come in CA 275 (February 2013) and CA 298 (January 2015), both as part of larger reviews of the archaeology of this area. The first considers medieval North Sea communities, while the second surveys the archaeological record of the Vikings. It is only in CA 319 (October 2016) that the magazine covered the site in detail, at the time of new fieldwork jointly undertaken by DigVentures and the University of Durham. There is also an interesting consideration of St Cuthbert’s isolated hermitage, away from the abbey, in CA 364 (July 2020). CA 397 (April 2023) and CA 417 (December 2024) are the most recent issues to return to Lindisfarne, with the former reporting on new museum displays there and the latter on the discovery of human remains during the construction of a new coastguard building; these were radiocarbon dated to the 8th-9th centuries, the peak of the site’s monastic activity. For those interested in the wider history of monasticism in this period, see also CA 408 (March 2024), which visited Ferns Abbey in County Wexford, in south-eastern Ireland, which is said to have been founded in 598 by St Aidan.
Monkwearmouth-Jarrow
Monkwearmouth-Jarrow, in modern-day Tyne and Wear, is sadly the least known and least-visited of the three sites that I will explore this month. This is an unfairness to an indisputably great site in terms of both archaeology and ecclesiastical history. The chronology of the linked monastic houses there is complicated. The first house was St Peter’s, Monkwearmouth, on the River Wear, founded in 674/675. It then became a double house with the foundation of St Paul’s, Jarrow, on the River Tyne in 684-685, and together these are most famously associated with the ‘Venerable’ Bede (672/673-735). Both houses were sacked by Viking raiders, ultimately resulting in their abandonment in the 9th century, and while attempts were made to refound them in the 11th and 14th centuries, they were finally dissolved in 1536. Thankfully, each survived, at least in part, as parish churches: at Jarrow substantial ruins survive next to St Paul’s Church, while parts of St Peter’s, Monkwearmouth, were excavated by Rosemary Cramp in 1963-1978, with a final excavation in 1984. Alas, CA’s visits to this site have been minimal. CA 4 (September 1967) set a strong start with an account of Cramp’s fieldwork, but this was never followed up, and it was not until CA 186 (June 2003) that the magazine returned to examine the Anglo-Saxon glass from this earlier work. The most recent significant mention of the site came in CA 238 (January 2010), when it was added to the tentative list for World Heritage Site status. This award has yet to be achieved, although it is unquestionably deserved.
All of the sites mentioned in this column are open to the public: www.historicenvironment.scot/visit-a-place/places/iona-abbey-and-nunnery; www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/lindisfarne-priory; https://monkwearmouthcofe.com/st-peters; http://www.parishofjarrowandsimonside.info and https://jarrowhall.com (formerly Bede’s World).
Discover old issues : Read a selection of the articles discussed by Joe for free online at www.archaeology.co.uk/archive438. They will be available for one month from 6 August.
Print subscribers can add digital access to the entire back catalogue of CA for just £12 a year – simply email subs@currentpublishing.com and quote ‘DIGI438’.
