St Cuthbert's Cave, Doddington
- Not to be confused with St Cuthbert's Cave, Holburn
St Cuthbert's Cave, also known locally as Cuddy's Cave, is a natural sandstone cave in Northumberland which has traditionally been associated with St Cuthbert, the seventh century Anglo-Saxon monk, bishop and hermit.
There is another cave of the same name n the county, in the Kyloe Hills by Holburn.
The cave is to be found near Doddington in Northumberland.
Neolithic cup and ring markings, now no longer visible, were sketched there by George Tate in 1865 who wrote that, "On the scalp of the rock where it dips into the hill, four figures are traceable; but from being very much defaced, it is difficult to make out these forms, even when viewed under a favourable light."[1] Recent excavations, revealing extensive cup and ring markings, have been conducted at nearby Dod Law.[2]
Legend of St Cuthbert
According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, in 875 as the Danes ravaged Lindisfarne and
"... destroyed all the monasteries. Eardulf, bishop of Lindisfarne, and abbot Eadred, taking the body of St Cuthbert from the island of Lindisfarne, wandered about for seven years."
According to legend, these caves might have been among the places in which either the monks took shelter with their holy relic or where Cuthbert himself lived as an anchorite hermit before moving to the Farne Islands.[3][4]
References
- ↑ Cuddy's Cave, Beckensall archive, University of Newcastle upon Tyne
- ↑ Dod Law, illustrated interactive guide, University of Newcastle upon Tyne. The project RAMP "Rock Art on Mobile Phones" allows exploration of these neolithic sites using information from a mobile phone as a guide.
- ↑ Colgrave 1985, p. 324
- ↑ Raine 1828, p. 21
- Raine, James (1828), Saint Cuthbert: With an Account of the State in which His Remains Were Found Upon the Opening of his tomb in Durham in the year 1827, G. Andrews, http://www.archive.org/details/saintcuthbertwi00raingoog
- Tate, George (1865), The ancient British sculptured rocks of Northumberland and the eastern borders: with notices of the remains associated with these sculptures, H.H. Blair
- Colgrave, Bertram (1985), Two Lives of St. Cuthbert, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 9780521313858