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The Recent Excavations at Holy Island Priory. By 

 Major-General Sir William Grossman, K.G.M.G., 

 F.S.A., M.P, President of B.N.C. (Plate XI.) 



In 1852, Canon Eaine, in his exhaustive " History of North 

 Durham," from which most of the facts connected with the 

 Priory mentioned in this Paper have been obtained, speaking 

 of the Priory Church at Holy Island, said : " So far is the church 

 gone, and so fast seems to be going that which remains, that 

 fifty years will, I fear, find scarcely one stone upon another." 



Fortunately his anticipation has not been realized ; thanks to 

 the liberality of the Commissioners of Woods and Forests, in 

 whom the ruins are vested on behalf of the Crown, what remains 

 of the old Priory Church has been carefully and judiciously 

 preserved, and measures have been taken which it is hoped will 

 ensure the ruins for years to come being' ke[)t, so far as possible, 

 in the condition they now are. 



The Priory Church, however, does not come within the scope 

 of this paper: for full information about it reference can be 

 made to Paine's "History" above referred to, and to Wilson's 

 "Churches of Lindisfarne." It is of the domestic buildings of 

 the Priory, of which the foundations and portions of the walls 

 have been exposed during the recent excavations, that a short 

 description will be given. 



Four years ago, south of the Priory Church, there was a con- 

 fused mass of broken ground and rubbish covered with coarse 

 grass and weeds, separated from the Sanctuary* Close on the 

 east partly by a sunken fence, and paitly by an irregularly 

 traced rubble wall— this wall being continued on the south 

 under tlie Heugh, and on the west dividing the Priory enclosure 

 from the Mustard Close and the Parish Churchyard, terminating 

 at the south-western tower of the church. 



Within this enclosure were standing two solid thick walls of 

 masonry, in one of which were the remains of two large fire- 

 places with chimney. Besides the ruins of the church, these 

 walls were then all that was to be seen above ground of the 

 Benedictine Monastery which existed m Holy Island (as a cell 



* Raine, p. 145, says that " Sanctuary" is probably a misnomer for 

 " Cemetery." 



