Ramsay Gibb

The Pilgrim Coast

• As part of the Lindisfarne Gospels regional programme, Scottish painter Ramsay Gibb tracked down the sacred sites and ancient pathways in old Northumbria - from Lindisfarne to St Herbert's Isle.

• Ramsay Gibb is renowned for his paintings recording journeys across the British Isles, in search of ancient pilgrim roads leading to sacred sites.

• For The Pilgrim Coast he has walked two of the principal routes associated with St Cuthbert's and his many travels.

• The paintings focus on some of the places most intimately connected to the spiritual life of Northumbria’s kings, people and saints.

• They explore the connection between the landscape and what was once Northumbria, together with the lives of saints such as Cuthbert, Aidan and Oswald.

St Cuthbert's elevation, Church Hill and Alnmouth at first light by Scottish landscape artist Ramsay Gibb

• Speaking about The Pilgrim Coast, Ramsay Gibb said that he had been struck by the sight of footprints in the wet sands leading to Holy Island, being continually washed out and obliterated by the tide and then re-established by the feet of new pilgrims.

• “This collection returns to the origins of my inspiration, to the stories of one of the richest flowerings of spirituality in these islands, the blossoming of Christianity that took place in Northumbria.”