The coming of the holy men to Aberlady has its origins in the 7^th century Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of Bernicia and Deira.

Following the defeat of the Bernician king Aethelfrith in 616, his heirs were exiled to the Irish Scotti kingdom of Dal Riata (roughly present day Argyll). Here they were educated and introduced to the teachings of the early Columban Church by the monks of Iona.  When Deiran King Edwin died some years later, Aethelfrith’s eldest son Oswald sought to regain his father’s kingdom. The night before the great battle, he is said to have received a vision of St Columba. In the thankful aftermath of the battle he named the site Heavenfield and instructed that the monks of Iona should establish a great monastery in his new won kingdom of Northumbria.

So it was that in 638 the Irish monk Aidan set out from Iona. The monastery he established was, like Iona, on an island site.  It was known then as Medcaut but is known to us today as the Holy Island of Lindisfarne.  Place name evidence (see attached research publication below), suggests that Aidan and his twelve monks from Iona may have travelled to Aberlady on route to the Northumbrian kingdom.  

Pilgrimage Routes from Iona to Lindisfarne

Images Copyright Simon Taylor

When Lothian was absorbed into the Anglo Saxon kingdom of Northumbria, the settlement at Aberlady was evidently of some importance to the new overlords.  We know this from the concentration of stray Anglo Saxon metallic objects found here, the largest yet discovered in Scotland.  However, the activities taking place in the settlement are less clear, although the finely carved high cross they erected in the ground here in c.720 tells us that it had a significant ecclestiastical function.  The extent to which the settlement here was related to the monastery at Abercorn, from where Bishop Trumwin took the word of God to the Picts, is not clear either.

The carved designs on the cross fragment bear a strikingly close relationship with the illuminated artwork in the Lindisfarne Gospels, one of Britain’s greatest national treasures.   

Other links to an ecclestiastical foundation are the fine metalwork tip of a bishop's (or abbot's) crosier head of probable 8th or 9th century date, a gilt ring engraved with the words "Maria" and "Jesus" and a silver figurine of Madonna and Child. 

The Bernician Heartlands, showing Early Christian centres

Image Copyright David Rollason

The finds from Aberlady and the place name evidence referred to suggest that Aberlady's importance as a centre of the early church continued until medieval times.