Norse raiders attacked the holy island of Lindisfarne off the Northumbrian coast in an event that is generally accepted as the start of the ‘Viking’ period of British history.

The monastery on Lindisfarne had been established by Saint Aiden in the early 7th century, and grew to be an important centre of Christianity in Anglo-Saxon Britain. Although the attack on the Holy Island was not the first time that Vikings had targeted Britain, it is notable due to being an assault on the holiest site in the kingdom of Northumbria and, arguably, Anglo-Saxon Britain. The raiders laid waste to the ...