THE NORTH RIDING PROJECT

Before St Aidan came the islands were inhabited by little people ‘clad in cowls and rising upon goats, black in complexion, short in stature, their countenances most hideous, their heads long’.  

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The islands themselves vary in number according to the state of the tide: there are perhaps fifteen of them which never become submerged at all.  As several of them never become exposed (not islands really of course), the place is very dangerous for shipping.  At low tide there are about twenty-eight islands (above the water).  They are notable for birds and seals and also for their history as a refuge from the world for saints.

Seymour/Companion