To the Island of Tides by Alistair Moffat

Author:Alistair Moffat
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Canongate Books

7

Wandering

The following morning I set out for the wild up-country of north Northumberland, where I believe Cuthbert went to open his heart to God, where he would pray and keep silent, listening for whispers of revelation on the ever-present wind. The maps of Doddington and Ford moors are speckled with memories of the saint, some of them long-standing and more persistent than mere tradition. Cuddy was an affectionate nickname for Cuthbert and on that bright morning I set out to find Cuddy’s Cave, a place where he is said to have prayed and sought refuge.

The course of the Till led me to a very striking outcrop of rock on the flanks of Dod Law, where the land rose steeply and the moorland began. Poking out of the hillside, it looked like the corner tower of a vast submerged stone fortress. After my usual difficulties with high barbed-wire fences, I climbed up the steep slope to be astonished. The vista to the west was vast, completely unexpected. I could make out landmarks that were many miles distant. Across the Milfield Plain, where the Earl of Surrey had preferred to do battle with James IV, the eastern ranges of the Cheviots petered out in the low hills above Wooler, and due west, the conspicuous rounded hump of Yeavering Bell stood out clearly against the horizon. Beyond that, the hills faded in the haze of a sunny morning. When Cuthbert came across this great rock, the panorama will have meant much more than scenery to him.

When I reached the outcrop, I found a small cave with a wind-buffed entrance that was almost perfectly semi-circular, like a round-headed window. If Cuddy did indeed seek shelter in this shallow cave, he could not have done much more than sleep there. I crawled in and could barely sit up, although there was welcome relief from the breeze, even though the open entrance is wide. But it was only when I climbed to the top of the crag that I understood why this place would have attracted Cuthbert.

Jutting out from the hillside, commanding wide and long views, this was a place to pray and a place where God could see His servant searching the sky, arms aloft for His grace. And for Cuthbert, his intimate knowledge of the New Testament guided his actions and attitudes as he knelt on the rock, gazing out over the plain and the hills. Christ’s Last Temptation took place on a mountain from where He could see all the nations of the world and where Satan tested Him with the promise of secular power. On his mountain, Cuthbert will have drawn strength from Jesus’ example as he fought his demons.

About five miles to the west, at the foot of Yeavering Bell, lay Ad Gefrin, a Northumbrian royal palace and a focus of secular power in the second half of the seventh century, the sort of power Satan dangled before Christ. In its timber halls kings gave judgements, held councils and feasted with their warriors.

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