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The island of Lindisfarne lies some two miles off the Northumberland coast, nine and a half miles southeast of the border-town of Berwick on Tweed. For two hours before and three hours after high tide the Island may be reached from the mainland via a causeway, making it possible for motorists to cross. However, before the causeway was constructed, access was only by foot along a route known as the Pilgrim’s Way, marked by 270 tall poles and two refuge boxes for travellers who found themselves stranded by the tide.

The route is commemorated by Sir Walter Scott:

For with the flow and ebb, its style

Varies from Continent to Isle

Dry shod, o’er sands, twice every day

The Pilgrims to the Shrine find way

Twice every day the waves efface

Of Stavis and sandalled feet the trace.

The island is now usually called Holy Island, a designation dating back to the eleventh century. Lindisfarne is famous for being the mother-church and religious capital of Northumbria, for here St. Aidan, a Columban monk-bishop from Iona, founded his see in 635. The resemblance of Lindisfarne to the island whence St. Aidan came has obtained for it the title of the Iona of England. Aidan's mission was started at the request of King Oswald, who had been educated by the Celtic monk, and who then resided on the mainland at the royal fortress of Bamborough.

Holy Island became the centre of great missionary activity and also the episcopal seat of sixteen successive bishops. The influence of these spiritual leaders was considerable, owing in great measure to the patronage afforded by kings such as St. Oswald. Not only did St. Aidan fix his see here, but he also established a monastic community and from this monastery were founded all the churches between Edinburgh and the Humber, as well as several others in the great midland district and in the country of the East Angles.

The original buildings were probably of wood. We gain some notion of their unpretending character from the fact that St. Finan, Aidan's successor, found it necessary to reconstruct the church so as to make it more worthy of the see. This he did after the Irish fashion, using hewn oak with a roof of reeds. A later bishop, Eadbert, removed the reeds and substituted sheets of lead. This modest structure was dedicated by Archbishop Theodore of Canterbury in honour of St. Peter, and within it, on the right side of the altar, reposed the body of St. Aidan. Portions of this primitive cathedral existed in 1082, when they disappeared to make room for a more elaborate and lasting edifice.

Lindisfarne owes much of its glory to St. Cuthbert, who ruled its church for just two years from 685 to 687, but whose incorrupt body was there venerated during two centuries. In 793 the Danes invaded the island, pillaged the church, and slaughtered or drowned the monks. In 875 they returned, bent on further destruction, but the monks had fled, bearing with them St. Cuthbert's shrine. The half ruined church, however, later gave temporary shelter to the relics of St. Cuthbert at the time when William the Conqueror was engaged in subduing Northumbria.

The book called the "Lindisfarne Gospels" ("St. Cuthbert's Gospels" or the "Durham Book") is still preserved in the British Museum Library. It was written at Lindisfarne by Eadfrid "in honour of St. Cuthbert" about 700 AD. It consists of 258 leaves of thick vellum and contains the Four Gospels in the Latin of St. Jerome's Version, written in double columns with an interlinear Saxon gloss -- the earliest form of the Gospels in English.

The ecclesiastical ruins on Holy Island date from the eleventh century. By a charter of 1082, Bishop Carileph bestowed the church of Lindisfarne on the Benedictines, whom he had brought to Durham from Wearmouth and Jarrow. During the priorate of Thomas Sparke (1536) however, the house was dissolved, and at his death, in 1571, the property passed into the hands of the Dean and Chapter of Durham. Since 1613 the site of the priory has belonged to the crown. The church, under the invocation of St. Cuthbert, was a copy of Durham Cathedral on a small scale. The similarity is especially observable in the voluted and chevroned columns of the nave. Its length was 150 feet. The tower was still standing in 1728. In 1887, a pilgrimage, consisting of 3000 people, crossed the sands to Holy Island to commemorate the twelfth centenary of St. Cuthbert's death.

The first record of Cromartys on Holy Island is 1724, when on January 25, William Cramartie married Jean Lumsden. William is recorded as having been born in 1693, but his place of birth is not recorded. Possibly it was Orkney. The island has a safe natural harbour and fishermen used to follow the shoals of herring as they moved down the North Sea, using the Holy Island harbour as a convenient mooring. In the 1700s and 1800s herring fishing was highly lucrative and it is possible that a Cromarty from Orkney settled on the Island during this time.

The baptism records for three of William and Jean’s children show their name spelt Crummity and the death record for William shows his name spelt Cromity, providing excellent evidence of just how unimportant the specific spelling of a name is. From 1754 on, the name seems to be consistently spelt Cromarty, although even today it is pronounced Crumarty.

It is assumed by genealogists studying the Cromartys of Holy Island that they all descend from William and Jean. I was particularly interested in one William Cromarty, believed to have been born on Holy island on September 4, 1828. He was a shoemaker, as was his father, which interests me because two of my ancestors, born in Caithness in the 1850s were also shoemakers. Although these brothers were from Orkney I find it an interesting coincidence that two separate Cromarty lines should produce shoemakers. William C. from Holy Island had a shoe business in Tweedmouth and later in Berwick on Tweed. He died in August 1876 after misjudging the tide on a business visit to Holy Island. He managed to swim to the mainland, but later ‘caught his death of cold’, probably succumbing to pneumonia.

By 1851 there were eight Cromarty families totalling 31 people. All the adult males were fishermen. It is also thought though that there were other Cromarty descendants who had probably married into mainland English families and their details recorded in other Parish registers. Family Bible records and information from individual families provide further details on the period between 1850 and 1955. Some notable Cromartys are:

William Cromarty, born Newcastle on Tyne in 1894 and later married Marie Pas de Loup in France. His service with the French Resistance during the Second World War earned him the rank of Office of the Legion of Honour.

Robert Friar Cromarty, born in Tweedmouth in 1870, lived in Rhodesia between 1890 and 1900 and served with Baden Powell’s Mounted Troop at Mafeking.

George Douglas Cromarty. Private 30732, 2nd/4th Battalion, East Lancashire Regiment. Killed in action 21st March 1918 in France & Flanders. Aged 19. Born and resident Holy Island, enlisted Alnwick. Son of Thomas and Sarah Cromarty, of Front St., Holy Island, Beal, Northumberland. Formerly 39991, Northumberland Fusiliers. Commemorated on POZIERES MEMORIAL, Somme, France. Panel 42 and 43. He is also listed on the Lindsifarne Memorial.

George Cromarty Douglas. Sergeant 901664, 124 Field Regiment, Royal Artillery. Died 20th June 1942. Aged 23. Son of Thomas and Isabella Douglas, of High Heaton, Newcastle-on-Tyne. Commemorated on ALAMEIN MEMORIAL, Egypt. Column 31. He is also listed on the Lindsifarne Memorial.

More detailed genealogy will be provided soon.