A lifetime of Islands: Island 108 - Inner Farne, Farne Islands, Northumberland

Saturday, 21 May 2011

Island 108 - Inner Farne, Farne Islands, Northumberland

Inner Farne is 2 miles north east of Bamburgh in Northumberland. It can be accessed by boat from Seahouses. Various operators run trips to the Farne Islands. The islands are composed mainly of very hard dolerite.

When I visited Inner Farne for an afternoon in mid May 2010 thousands of very noisy terns had arrived to breed but they hadn’t started nesting, so they weren’t divebombing the visitors, which is apparently what happens a bit further into the breeding season. Three types of tern breed on the island - Sandwich, Arctic and common. Rare roseate terns occasionally nest on the island. When I visited the island for a second time in late June 2024, we were attacked by divebombing terns. It is essential to wear a hat and preferably to walk next to someone is taller than you!

There were also lots and lots of razorbills, eider ducks, guillemots, puffins, fulmars and shags. The female eider ducks are very camouflaged against the rock, which makes them very difficult to spot, as they remain very still even when you get close to them, and all to easy to nearly tread on. During the breeding season (April to July) Inner Farne can be home to up to 50,000 birds. Grey seals breed in large numbers on the Farne Islands.

St Aidan visited Inner Farne in 651. St Cuthbert retreated to Inner Farne from Lindisfarne in 676 and lived there until 684 when he was made Bishop of Hexham. He returned shortly afterwards and lived on Inner Farne until his death in 687.

In 1255 the convent of Durham established a small Benedictine Monastery on the island. St Cuthbert's Chapel was built in the mid 13th century and was altered to its current shape and size by the 1370s. In the 18th century it was used to house the lighthouse keepers and then it fell into ruin. It was restored in the 1840s by Charles Thorp, the Archdeacon at Durham Cathedral. He added new windows and furnished it with items from Durham Cathedral. The stained glass window was made by William Wailes of Newcastle and was installed in 1844.

The site of a second chapel, which was dedicated to St Mary, is now the visitor centre. In addition to the information centre, Inner Farne has a toilet, which is an improvement on Staple Island, which has no facilities at all!

Prior Castell's Tower was built in around 1500 by Prior Castell of Durham Cathedral. It is reputed to be the site of St Cuthbert’s Cell. The tower is now home to the National Trust Wardens.

After the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1536 the Farne Islands became the property of the Dean and Chapter of Durham. They were tenanted for 300 years and the seabirds and seals were greatly exploited.

In the late 1830s Charles Thorp became the tenant of the inner Farne Islands and in 1861 he purchased them. He employed wardens to protect the seabird nests from Victorian egg collectors. The Farne Islands were purchased by the National Trust in 1925.

The first lighthouse on the island was a timber fire on top of the Castle Tower from 1673. The current lighthouse was designed by Daniel Alexander and built in 1811. It was automated in 1910. There used to be two more lighthouse keepers' cottages.

There is a blowhole called The Churn on the western tip of the island.