left The hermitage of St Colman Mac Duagh (AD 560-632) who spent two periods of his life as a religious recluse still survives in a forest glade with a spring at the foot of Slievecarran in the Burren National Park in County Clare. It serves as a type site for similar retreats, which typically consist of a cave and a chapel. Although located in an isolated setting, it was still within half-a day’s walk of the royal court and port at Kinvara, and the monastic centre at Kilmacduagh.

Seeking seclusion: medieval hermitages in Britain and Ireland

Medieval monasteries and their communities have been (and continue to be) well studied, but not so the structures associated with those who chose a more solitary route to salvation: hermits and anchorites. Dr Simon Roffey’s new book, An Archaeological History of Hermitages and Eremitic Communities in Medieval Britain and Beyond, sets out to remedy that omission, as Chris Catling reports.

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Current Archaeology

May 30, 2023

In CA 398 we explored the exceptional early medieval remains of Skellig Michael, with its terracing, beehive huts, and chapels. Located off the coast of County Kerry, it is a place battered by cold Atlantic rain and winds, and thus a fitting environment in which religious people could test their spiritual resilience through penitential isolation and deprivation. For those who hankered after even more harsh and ascetic conditions than the communal life of the islet’s small monastic settlement, though, there was another option: the difficult and hazardous climb to the Hermitage, an isolated retreat located just below the crest of the South Peak.

Simon Roffey compares the Hermitage with the locations sought out by the early Christian hermits in the eastern Mediterranean: the open sea surrounding Skellig Michael, with its elemental power and unknown vastness, was analogous to the Egyptian deserts, while the tiny mountain-top oratory compares to the stylite pillars of ancient Syria. It was at the latter that the hermitic ideal first made its appearance among a group of solitary men who spent their lives sitting on top of the region’s many Roman columns. Simeon the Stylite is the best-known example. His story came down to us through the Vita Symeonis (‘Life of Simeon’), composed by Theodoret, the 5th-century Bishop of Cyrrhus, who records that Simeon spent 28 years on his pillar, after first gaining his balance by being tied to a beam so that he would not topple over.

The Church has never been comfortable with people who go their own way in matters of religion, and those at the top end of the emerging hierarchy regarded the extreme practices of the stylites with suspicion. Church Fathers such as St Basil of Caesarea – who toured Egypt and Syria in AD 356 to study eastern models of monasticism before founding a community of his own at Cappadocia, in Turkey – came down in favour for what St Benedict called the ‘coenobitic’ lifestyle. Named from the Greek words koinos and bios, meaning ‘common’ and ‘life’ respectively, this promoted the ideals of collective spirituality, group support, the discipline of a daily routine, and, importantly, the leadership and authority of a spiritual superior.

below The remains of the column of St Simeon at Saint Simeon Stylites Basilica, near Aleppo in Syria. Simeon spent 28 years on his pillar, after first gaining his balance by being tied to a beam so that he would not topple over. — The remains of the column of St Simeon at Saint Simeon Stylites Basilica, near Aleppo in Syria. Simeon spent 28 years on his pillar, after first gaining his balance by being tied to a beam so that he would not topple over. Image: Public domain, Creative Commons

Accepting asceticism

When St Benedict codified monastic practice c.AD 530 through his eponymous Rule, he did not proscribe the eremitic life as a valid form of monasticism, but he made it clear that such a lifestyle was only for those who had already developed a high degree of spiritual maturity. The solitary life, he said, is not for new converts fired by fervour, but for those who, through the support of ‘the army of brothers’, have developed the ability to ‘fight with their own hand’ against the vices of the flesh and of their own imaginings – malignant forces that were both external and internal.

Thus, prior religious training was seen as essential for the development of the self-discipline required of a hermit, and that may well account for the fact that, as Simon Roffey demonstrates, the line between the communal and the individualised relationship with God was always sharply drawn in the early medieval period. Whilst there were independent hermits throughout history, living outside of Church jurisdiction in caves and rock-cut shelters, the majority of hermits subjected themselves to Church authority and moved between various roles. Sometimes they lived as members of a monastic community, sometimes as more solitary figures. With many monasteries and monastic landscapes incorporating hermitages, abbots and bishops could spend periods of time as temporary hermits at different periods of their life.

In Ireland, for example, St Colman Mac Duagh (AD 560-632) spent two periods of his life as a religious recluse, but he was also the founder of several monastic institutions. His hermitage survives in a forest glade with a spring at the foot of Slievecarran in the Burren National Park in County Clare, and it serves as a type site for similar retreats, which typically consist of a cave and a chapel – an arrangement that is replicated at multiple sites in western Scotland and the west coast of Wales.

left Some of our knowledge of the lives of hermits comes from manuscripts and paintings. While wall paintings are rare, a few survive, such as this 14th-century depiction of the life of St John the Baptist with a ‘hairy hermit’ a recluse who purportedly walked on all fours in penance for his sins found at St Hubert’s Church in Idsworth, Hampshire. — Some of our knowledge of the lives of hermits comes from manuscripts and paintings. While wall paintings are rare, a few survive, such as this 14th-century depiction of the life of St John the Baptist with a ‘hairy hermit’ a recluse who purportedly walked on all fours in penance for his sins found at St Hubert’s Church in Idsworth, Hampshire.

Though this hermitage is located in an isolated setting, it was within half-a day’s walk of the royal court and port at Kinvara and the monastic centre at Kilmacduagh, founded by Colman under the patronage of his kinsman, Guaire Aidne mac Colmáin, King of Connacht. This, and several other examples in the Atlantic fringes of Britain and Ireland, suggest that monastery and hermitage were linked elements in a complex religious landscape, and that isolated retreats were often created as satellite sites to the communal establishment.

Another example of this is the monastery on the Island of Innishmurray in County Sligo, one of the best-preserved examples in Ireland of an early monastic landscape. There, the main settlement of chapels, beehive huts, and a cemetery, all enclosed by a substantial wall, is surrounded by a processional ring of altars, prayer stations, and ritual monuments. This includes the hermitage at Trahanareear, situated on high cliffs a mile west of the core complex. Having said that, monastic communities were themselves quite small – numbering perhaps no more than a dozen monks – so the hermitage was, in a sense, only a slightly more extreme version of separation from the wider community.

right Hermitages were typically small, often consisting of just a cave and chapel. Many leave little traces of their previous use; but, in some, crosses, altars, and other religious carvings still remain, such as this depiction of Christ on the Cross carved above a natural stone altar found at Cratcliffe Hermitage in Derbyshire. — Hermitages were typically small, often consisting of just a cave and chapel. Many leave little traces of their previous use; but, in some, crosses, altars, and other religious carvings still remain, such as this depiction of Christ on the Cross carved above a natural stone altar found at Cratcliffe Hermitage in Derbyshire.

Looking for links in the landscape

The islands and coastline of the Atlantic fringe provided an ideal setting for the founding of monasteries and hermitages to support an ascetic and penitential lifestyle, but the choice of site might have had other dimensions that we cannot now recover. When Christianity arrived in these regions, it was grafted onto a framework of existing social practices and belief structures – not least in the form of a myth-laden landscape already associated with pagan power. As such, the hermitage might have been seen as a ‘spiritual battleground’ by those testing the power of their own ‘superior’ religion.

The habit of attributing myths to resonant landscapes is not unique to the distant past. Simon Roffey warns that there are cave sites named after early medieval saints with little historical or archaeological evidence that they were used as hermitages. Sometimes the name is so recent that the attribution can be dated by its first appearance on an Ordnance Survey map, so naming caves after holy figures continues that long-standing practice of investing landscape features with spiritual significance.

Eileach an Naoimh, located some 30 nautical miles from Iona, may be the island of ‘Hinba’ that was visited several times by St Columba.

The dual arrangement of monastery and associated hermitage was exported from Ireland to the islands of western Scotland. Keil Point, on the southern tip of Kintyre, often cited as the landing point of St Columba’s mission, lies just ten miles from the Irish coast on a route no doubt tested over many centuries of trade and migration. High winds and stormy seas could make such a journey perilous, but on a calm day, a three-hour boat journey would bring you to the islands of Mull and Iona, the latter chosen by the exiled Irish monk St Columba as his base for establishing Christianity in Scotland.

According to the Life of Columba, written by the later abbot of Iona, Adomnán (d. AD 704), monks who wished to withdraw to live in isolation would go to ‘the place of the anchorites’ on the island of ‘Hinba’. Adomnán says that Columba himself visited Hinba four times, and Simon Roffey argues for this hitherto unidentified island being Eileach an Naoimh (‘Island of the Saint’), located some 30 nautical miles from Iona. There, he says, is a substantial but undocumented site of monastic character, including the remains of beehive huts, a well, and an underground chamber, as well as a grave traditionally said to be that of Columba’s mother, Eithne.

below The island has remains of beehive huts, a well, and an underground chamber, as well as a grave traditionally said to be that of St Columba’s mother, Eithne. — The island has remains of beehive huts, a well, and an underground chamber, as well as a grave traditionally said to be that of St Columba’s mother, Eithne.

There are further examples of eremitic remains on the islands of Tiree and Canna, while the most complete evidence for an early hermitage can be found on the Tarbat peninsula, at Portmahomack. There, Martin Carver’s excavations revealed evidence for a 6th-century church and cemetery at the centre of a ritual landscape marked by monumental cross slabs that memorialised the presence of the first generation of saints and hermits to occupy this area (see CA 321).

Many cave sites found elsewhere in Scotland are named after early saints and hermits. Though most lack any surviving evidence for being used by such figures, there are some that have clearly been modified. St Medan’s Cave, near Kirkmaiden in Dumfries and Galloway, has steps cut into the rock face leading to an upper chamber, interpreted as an oratory. The walls of St Molaise’s Cave, on Holy Island, are incised with simple crosses that can be securely dated to the period before the 8th century because they are overlain by Norse runic inscriptions. St Ninian’s Cave, in the vicinity of Whithorn, has crosses of an early form cut into the rock face, while Columba’s Cave, near Ellary, has crosses on the cave wall and an interior shelf that could have served to support a portable altar.

above & Right St Govan’s Chapel, located at the foot of a cliff at St Govan’s Head, Pembrokeshire, is one of the most evocative hermitages to survive in Wales. The chapel itself is 13th-century in date but it gives access to a much older cave at the eastern end, associated (as the name tells us) with the 6th-century Irish saint Govan. — ABOVE & BELOW St Govan’s Chapel, located at the foot of a cliff at St Govan’s Head, Pembrokeshire, is one of the most evocative hermitages to survive in Wales. The chapel itself is 13th-century in date but it gives access to a much older cave at the eastern end, associated (as the name tells us) with the 6th-century Irish saint Govan.

Further south, in Wales and western England, it is the caves, coasts, and islands that once again provide the best evidence for early Christian hermitages. Arguably, that might simply reflect the fact that sites elsewhere have been hidden by later developments, but literary references and archaeological excavation all bear out the association of Welsh islands – such as Ramsey, Caldey, Bardsey, Puffin, and Burry Holms – with eremitic practice. Bardsey (Ynys Enlli) is still an important place of pilgrimage, as it was throughout the medieval period. The 12th-century chronicler Gerald of Wales explains that this was because of the ‘vast number of holy men buried there’.

Excavations at Burry Holms, the tidal island in Rhossili Bay on Gower, have revealed an early eremitic site linked to the mainland priory at Llangennith that continued to be used as a retreat until the 15th century – Philip Lichepoll, William Bernard, and Thomas Norys are all named as late medieval hermits. Perhaps the most evocative of surviving hermitages in Wales, however, is St Govan’s Chapel, located at the foot of a cliff at St Govan’s Head, Pembrokeshire. The chapel itself is 13th-century in date but it gives access to a much older cave at the eastern end, associated (as the name tells us) with the 6th-century Irish saint, Govan.

left The cave hermitage of St Robert of Knaresborough, which was excavated in 1989 by Harrogate Museums Service, is open to the public. — The cave hermitage of St Robert of Knaresborough, which was excavated in 1989 by Harrogate Museums Service, is open to the public.

The names, dates, and places of many hermitages are recorded in documentary sources for England, including that of Pega (d. c.AD 719), England’s earliest recorded female hermit, possibly located at Peakirk, near Peterborough – one of a group of hermitages located in the undrained Fens, with its numerous marshes and riverine islands. We know too of the Mercian hermit Berthelin, who lived on an island in the marches of the River Sow in Staffordshire; the Irish saint Modwin, whose cell was on St Andrew’s Island in the Trent at Burton, Staffordshire; and of hermit isles in the River Parrett and in the Somerset Levels, around Glastonbury.

right Here you can see the foundations of the hermitage chapel at Knaresborough, with a grave located very close to what was the altar. — Here you can see the foundations of the hermitage chapel at Knaresborough, with a grave located very close to what was the altar.

Rarely reclusive

As may now be apparent, archaeological evidence for any of these cave-based hermitages is elusive, and often there is little evidence for their precise location other than traditional associations. It is only from the 11th century onwards that hermitages become more visible in the archaeological record. By then, England alone is said to have had more hermits than any other European country, apart from Italy, at this time (though Simon Roffey warns that this may simply reflect the relative survival of documentary records from this period). Those whose names we know include Wulfric of Haselbury (c.1080-1154), Christina of Markyate (c.1096-c.1155), and Godric of Finchale (1065-1170) – all of whom began their life of religious solitude and self-denial outside of monastic institutions, but who later ‘came into the fold’ and became influential members of various religious communities (hence the survival of their names in monastic chronicles).

As in the early medieval period, some monks moved out of their monasteries to found hermitages. One of the best known is the former Cistercian monk Robert Flower (c.1160-1218). Though never officially canonised, he is known as St Robert of Knaresborough and, in 1989, Harrogate Museums Service excavated the site of his hermitage, which is open to the public. Located on a terrace above the River Nidd, it consists of a small linked chapel and living area as well as the outline of the grave where Robert was buried before his remains were translated to St Robert’s Priory, a house of Trinitarian friars founded in his honour c.1252, but of which nothing now remains.

left A cluster of caves was used by hermits at Bridgnorth in Shropshire. Here you can see the eroded remains of a stair doorway and archway. — A cluster of caves was used by hermits at Bridgnorth in Shropshire. Here you can see the eroded remains of a stair doorway and archway.

St Robert’s story illustrates just how difficult it was to achieve true solitude as a hermit by this time. His cave was sought out by pilgrims and penitents, among them nobility, including King John and his retinue. The money and land that they gave enabled him to distribute alms to the many poor and sick people who flocked to the site. Indeed, St Robert’s life illustrates several features that seem to be fairly standard for hermits of this period: the two-part cave structure (dwelling and oratory), the material support of wealthy patrons, and the irony that the esteem in which hermits were held meant that they ceased to be reclusive and were sought out during their lifetime, often becoming the focus of a cult after their death.

Indeed, Simon Roffey cites numerous examples of hermits pursuing spiritual solitude whilst living amongst others, close to towns and cities, rather than in the wilderness. ‘It is tempting to think’, he writes, ‘that many medieval town suburbs had communities of hermitages on their outskirts’. One example is found on the edge of Redstone in Worcestershire, where holes in the cliff face provide evidence for a network of timber stairs, walkways, balconies, and galleries linking the numerous caves bordering the River Severn. At Bridgnorth, Shropshire, and Guy’s Cliffe, which overlooks the River Avon on the edge of Warwick, there are similar clusters of caves that were used by hermits, while Nottingham’s extensive subterranean cave system (see CA 260) includes several linked chapels and hermits’ dwellings in addition to its 800 or so non-religious cellars and shelters.

left Hermitage caves can also be found at Guy’s Cliffe, overlooking the River Avon on the edge of Warwick. — Hermitage caves can also be found at Guy’s Cliffe, overlooking the River Avon on the edge of Warwick.

At Pontefract in West Yorkshire, the rock-cut hermitage was sealed up at the Reformation and forgotten until workmen building a sewer rediscovered it in 1854. Today, it is a Grade-I listed structure (albeit on the Heritage at Risk register), and survives underneath what is now Pontefract General Infirmary. Hewn out of carboniferous sandstone, it consists of two chambers and a spiral staircase descending vertically to a well and the carved figure of Death – a skeleton with prominent ribcage carrying a spear.

Records show that a succession of hermits lived there from the early 13th century. One of them, known as Peter of Pomfret, was executed by King John in 1213 for predicting that he would lose his crown on Ascension Day that year – a prophesy that was widely believed and that Shakespeare dramatised in his play about the monarch. This illustrates another aspect of the evolving character of the hermit: not only could their choice of poverty be seen as a rebuke to the rich, they were often cast in the role of the holy hero who could ‘speak truth to power’, as the current idiom has it. When King John came calling, St Robert showed how little he was impressed by worldly status by remaining kneeling and refusing to stand in the king’s presence until he had finished his prayers, later telling the king that he recognised only God as his superior.

right The entrance to the Pontefract hermitage, which was sealed up during the Reformation and forgotten about until it was rediscovered during sewer work in 1854, is now inside the basement of the vacant Pontefract Dispensary. — The entrance to the Pontefract hermitage, which was sealed up during the Reformation and forgotten about until it was rediscovered during sewer work in 1854, is now inside the basement of the vacant Pontefract Dispensary.

Hermits could challenge societal norms and assumptions in other ways, too. Late medieval stained glass in the church of St Matthew in Morley, Derbyshire, includes a scene in which St Robert ‘catchyth the deere’. This illustrates the episode from the popular Middle English Metrical Life of St Robert of Knaresborough, in which he challenged the provision in forest law that banned land enclosure, complaining on behalf of fellow forest-dwellers that, without fencing, their crops were being devastated by wild deer. When the forest keeper responded by challenging the hermit to tame the deer, St Robert demonstrated his God-given powers by rounding up the deer and harnessing them to his plough.

Some aristocrats saw that there was much to be gained by having a tame hermit on the premises. One of the most architecturally elaborate hermitages in England was constructed under the patronage of the Duke of Northumberland in c.1400. Excavated into the cliff face above the River Coquet in the grounds of Warkworth Castle, it has the standard arrangement of living accommodation with a bed platform in a recess, but the chapel to which it is linked is exceptionally ornate, boasting carved rib vaults, an elaborate altar, and a relief of the Nativity.

Royal or aristocratic sponsorship of hermits became ever-more institutionalised with the growth in popularity of the chantry served by priests, who might also be hermits. Indeed, it becomes more and more difficult to distinguish between the hermit as recluse and people who simply chose a semi-religious lifestyle, such as the numerous examples that Simon Roffey cites as ‘civic hermits’, who lived alongside bridges, town gates, and fords acting as toll collectors, wardens, guides, and ferrymen. Take, for example, the former mason who built a chapel for himself at Bridge Hewick in North Yorkshire and who collected alms from those who crossed the River Ure, or the hermit who collected tolls at St Mary’s Bridge in Derby. Others kept town walls in good repair or dug drainage ditches, like the hermits who lived above the various city gates in Norwich. Just such a hermit is often depicted in late medieval wall paintings of St Christopher. According to popular medieval accounts of the life of the saint, it was the hermit who instructed Christopher in the tenets of Christianity that led him to dedicate himself to a life of service carrying travellers across a deep and dangerous river.

left & below In the later medieval period it became the fashion for the nobility to house hermits on their property. The hermitage and chapel at Warkworth Castle, which were constructed under the patronage of the Duke of Northumberland in c.1400, still survive. — ABOVE & BELOW In the later medieval period it became the fashion for the nobility to house hermits on their property. The hermitage and chapel at Warkworth Castle, which were constructed under the patronage of the Duke of Northumberland in c.1400, still survive.

Advent of the anchorites

Almost at the end of the medieval period there emerged a new form of eremitic life that was almost entirely lay-based and that involved many women: the anchorite – so-called because he or she lived in a small cell, or anchorhold, attached to a church. Documentary evidence records the existence of 780 anchorites living on some 600 sites by the start of the 16th century.

Many of these cells are no longer recognisable now because they serve as vestries, organ chambers, or storage rooms. Others have been demolished and can only be identified by traces of a former roof, a blocked doorway or window, or an unexplained change in the fabric of a wall. The best clue, though, is the presence of an internal window or a squint, through which the anchorite would have had a view of the most sacred moment in the Mass: the elevation of host and chalice. Many such squints survive, as do internal windows, set low in the walls so that the anchorite could kneel at prayer while observing the high altar. Some anchorholds have survived in their entirety – at St Mary and All Saints in Willingham, Cambridgeshire; All Saints in Kings Lynn, Norfolk; and St Nicholas in Compton, Surrey.

above This blocked squint in the north chancel wall at St Lawrence’s in Stratford sub Castle, Wiltshire, once enabled an anchorite to view the elevation of the host and chalice by the priest at the high altar and thus take part in Holy Mass. — This blocked squint in the north chancel wall at St Lawrence’s in Stratford sub Castle, Wiltshire, once enabled an anchorite to view the elevation of the host and chalice by the priest at the high altar and thus take part in Holy Mass.

right This is a rare survival of an intact anchoritic cell built against the south wall of the church of St Nicholas in Compton, Surrey. Inside is an oratory and wooden prayer desk; an upper gallery might have served as accommodation for the anchorite. — This is a rare survival of an intact anchoritic cell built against the south wall of the church of St Nicholas in Compton, Surrey. Inside is an oratory and wooden prayer desk; an upper gallery might have served as accommodation for the anchorite.

Simon Roffey uses the term ‘conjugal solitude’ to describe this apparently paradoxical phenomenon whereby people sought solitude but were also held in a network of community relationships; few hermitages were entirely cut off from social contact and interaction. It is also clear from the historical and archaeological record that eremitism in the past has had less to do with absolute isolation, and more to do with renunciation and a commitment to the life of the spirit along a spectrum of religious practices. For all their austerity and privation, even the stylites liked to preach to a congregation, dictate their thoughts, and even have theological debates with fellow pillar-dwellers.