Turning tides on Holy Island
- angelaandjack
- May 23
- 2 min read
It was a short train ride from Durham to Berwick on Tweed where we had to wait until 2.45 pm for the tide to be low enough to cross with the very entertaining driver from Woody's Taxis, Andris or an anglicised Andrew from Latvia . He had an interesting slant on life in life in Latvia, still dominated by Russia after 30 years of so called freedom, his new life in north east England and his own spiritual experiences on Holy Island.
Josie and I just loved our cottage, High Rigg House, with its conservatory/ sun room just made for an afternoon doze after a busy morning. It was so cosy and comfortable. We arrived with enough time to check out the places to see and book ourselves dinner at the Crown and Anchor which promised Proper fish and delivered with freshly caught haddock in a gluten free tempura batter and a mountain of chips and peas.
The next morning we were up early for Ascension Thursday Mass at the parish church, St. Mary of the Virgin. There were only five of us there and unfortunately the priest who is the Chaplain at the Marygate Retreat House had to rush in order to be back to cook the pilgrims their breakfast. We held her up for a few minutes while I checked out some of the stunning vestments and Josie talked to the other couple, one of whom had actually heard John O'Donohue speak at a lecture in the December before he died. He gave us some great tips for touring John O'Donohue country so I'll let you know how we get on finding the places.
After Mass and planning over coffee it was time to turn our attention to crossing to St. Cuthbert's Island now that the tide was out. Unfortunately for all our planning the full moon had resulted in higher tides than usual and we couldn't cross safely to the Island so we said M orning Prayer with Cuthbert and enjoyed the sunshine in a sheltered spot.
