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from the Ordnance Survey of 1935

Holy Island, on the coast of Northumberland, is linked to the British mainland by a short causeway (covered twice a day by the tide). The nearest notable city is Berwick-on-Tweed, about 10 miles away; express trains from London to Edinburgh pass through that city. There's no telephone service to the island, and electrical service is unreliable in the winter. The nearest hospital, police station, and railways station (of the LNER) are at Beal, a couple of miles away on the mainland -- a couple of the big express trains stop at Beal each day (most pass through without stopping), plus a few 'local' passenger trains. Beal is 823 miles from London along the LNER network.

from the October 1936 edition of Bradshaw's Guide, with added color; red is the east coast LNER express line

The island is only about 3 miles wide. Most of it is flat, with lush green fields; notable locations are:
 

• Atop Beblowe Crag (the core of an ancient volcano) at the southeast corner of the island is Lindisfarne Castle, built in the 16th Century. Edward Hudson, the founder and publisher of Country Life magazine, now owns the castle; it's very comfortable, and has a famous set of gardens. (I suspect he is responsible for the golf course on the island, too -- Michael)
  

• The village of Lindisfarne (population about 300), near the Holy Island Harbour (known locally as "The Ooze"). Herring-boats set out into the North Sea from here; old herring-boats are turned upside-down, sawed in half, and used for sheds here and there on the island. There's a coast guard and lifeboat station in the town; and a a couple of public houses, one of which (the Crown and Anchor) has four bedrooms available for visitors. The town has its own Anglican chapel, and a small Presbyterian chapel.
  

• Saint Aidan's Priory was founded in 635 AD, but gradually diminished in the face of Viking attacks. The monastery was re-founded by Benedictine monks following the Norman Conquest. It was dissolved by Henry VIII in 1536. Lindisfarne was re-established as a monastic center for study in 1554, as a result of the actions of Cardinal Pole and the ascension of Mary to the throne. 

          The property having passed into the hands of the Durham bishopric of the Church of England, the re-established monastery was nominally "Anglican Benedictines", but many of the members were Catholic Benedictines from other countries that were sent to help start a new library. By the late Seventeenth Century, the focus of the monastery became that of recording and storing the farming and manufacturing knowledge of the period. This grew in time to include metallurgy and medical knowledge as well.
      During the Eighteenth Century, Lindisfarne renewed its reputation as a center of knowledge. With the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713, Spanish and Dutch nobles and officers loyal to Philip V of Spain sought sanctuary from the secession of the Netherlands to Austria. This started the tradition of the monastery accepting lay members (oblates) as long-term residents. These lay members began to offer tutoring in a variety of disciplines relating to science and martial matters of the period. The outbreak of the French Revolution saw the island’s population grow again as many religious leaders and noblemen loyal to the French monarchy also sought sanctuary on the island where they could be safe from the Terror without having to be subject to British scrutiny.
      With salvage and plunder from the wars in Europe that supplicants brought with them and the expansion of the British Empire in the Nineteenth Century, the Priory assembled a vast collection of ancient works on a variety of subjects. With the constant reminder of the Viking raid, the residents of the Lindisfarne monastery grew sophisticated in preserving, duplicating, and storing texts, manuscripts, scrolls, and other incunabula. By the present day, the monks at Lindisfarne are vastly out-numbered by the visiting scholars and seekers of special knowledge.

The modern-day Lindisfarne Monastery

• an Anglican Benedictine-based monastic Order of St. Thomas.
  

• The Order reports nominally to the local (Durham) Anglican Bishopric. However, there are also ties to the Catholic Church as a result of many Cistercian monks spending extended periods on the island.

• one of DeLacy's great-great uncles was abbot at the monastery in the 1760s for 2 years.

• an abbot and about 60 monks.

• population of lay members varies, but typically about 60 residents at any one time.

• an Anglican St. Andrew Benedictine nunnery, established in 1862. Mostly dedicated to quiet reflection and working to support the main efforts of the island through practicing medicine, cooking, research, etc.

• A deaconess and about 25 sisters.

• semi-permanent population of archivists and other specialists is about 150

• average division of labor amongst the various residents:

• 50% dedicated to collecting and preserving knowledge: cataloging and restoring old books, copying them and ensuring secure storage, and assisting with visiting researchers.

• 10% dedicated to traveling to collect and obtain books and artifacts.

• 10% focused on teaching other monks, oblates, or visitors.

• 30% devoted to the more traditional activities of monks. They raise crops, care for animals, make mead, and otherwise care for the monastery.

• the monastery has an extensive library with modern preservation and restoration facilities staffed by resident and visiting monks and archivists.

• there is a small fencing salon with 2 – 5 visiting instructors and about 20 students of special knowledge at any one time.

from the Encyclopedia Britannica, 1911:

HOLY ISLAND, or Lindisfarne, an irregularly shaped island in the North Sea, 2 m. from the coast of Northumberland, in which county it is included. Pop. (1901) 405. It is joined to the mainland at low water by flat sands, over which a track, marked by wooden posts and practicable for vehicles, leads to the island. There is a station on the North-Eastern railway at Beal, 9 m. S.E. of Berwick, opposite the island, but 1 m. inland. The island measures 3 m. from E. to W. and 2 m. N. to S., extreme distances. Its total area is 1051 acres. On the N. it is sandy and barren, but on the S. very fertile and under cultivation. Large numbers of rabbits have their warrens among the sands, and, with fish, oysters and agricultural produce, are exported. There are several fresh springs on the island, and in the northeast is a lake of 6 acres. At the south-west angle is the little fishing village (formerly much larger) which is now a favourite summer watering-place. Here is the harbour, offering good shelter to small vessels. Holy Island derives its name from a monastery founded on it by St Aidan, and restored in 1082 as a cell of the Benedictine monastery at Durham. Its ruins, still extensive and carefully preserved, justify Scott's description of it as a "solemn, huge and dark-red pile." An islet, lying off the S.W. angle, has traces of a chapel upon it, and is believed to have offered a retreat to St Cuthbert and his successors. The castle, situated east of the village, on a basaltic rock about 90 ft. high, dates from c. 1500.

     When St Aidan came at the request of King Oswald to preach to the Northumbrians he chose the island of Lindisfarne as the site of his church and monastery, and made it the head of the diocese which he founded in 635. For some years the see continued in peace, numbering among its bishops St Cuthbert, but in 793 the Danes landed on the island and burnt the settlement, killing many of the monks. The survivors, however, rebuilt the church and continued to live there until 883, when, through fear of a second invasion of the Danes, they fled inland, taking with them the body of St Cuthbert and other holy relics. The church and monastery were again destroyed and the bishop and monks, on account of the exposed situation of the island, determined not to return to it, and settled first at Chester-le-Street and finally at Durham. With the fall of the monastery the island appears to have become again untenanted, and probably continued so until the prior and convent of Durham established there a cell of monks from their own house. The inhabitants of Holy Island were governed by two bailiffs at least as early as the 14th century, and, according to J. Raine in his History of North Durham (1852), are called "burgesses or freemen" in a private paper dated 1728. In 1323 the bailiffs and community of Holy Island were commanded to cause all ships of the burthen of thirty tons or over to go to Ereswell with their ships provisioned for a month at least and under double manning to be ready to set out on the king's service. Towards the end of the 16th century the fort on Holy Island was garrisoned for fear of foreign invasion by Sir William Read, who found it very much in need of repair, the guns being so decayed that the gunners "dare not give fire but by trayne," and the master gunner had been "miserably slain" in discharging one of them. During the Civil Wars the castle was held for the king until 1646, when it was taken and garrisoned by the parliamentarians. The only other historical event connected with the island is the attempt made by two Jacobites in 1715 to hold it for the Pretender.