robertormerod

Every year hundreds of Northern Cross pilgrims walk from across Northern England and Scotland, bearing crosses on their backs and sleeping in church halls at night, to reach the Holy Island of Lindisfarne.  On Easter Friday these pilgrims gather to walk the final five miles across freezing cold tidal waters to reach the island.    A centre of early Christianity, The Holy Island of Lindisfarne is sacred ground to many all year round- Some come for peace, some to grieve, others to escape the past, and a few make the journey to find themselves.  I went to explore the healing power of faith and the relationship people form with a particular landscape.  What draws people here and why do they find an emotional connection with a higher power through the tangible?    

Young Doomen tell stories of men who sleep and eat with their pigeons and others who have left their wives for the birds. Over Tennents and cigarettes they talk about long ago fights over birds which left someone’s uncle or grandfather with a bloody nose or much worse. They talk about how huts used to be torched, almost forgotten brawls and van loads of Edinburgh Doomen raiding huts in Glasgow en mass. But most of all they talk about the excitement of the sport: Who has caught what; who’s flying well, the near misses and the thrill of the catch. This series explores “Doo flying”, is a pass-time which has been practiced in Scotland since Victorian times. Thousands, mainly in the housing schemes of Edinburgh and Glasgow, fly horseman thief pigeons, or “doos” from are lofts, bedrooms, living rooms and sheds often built by hand. Its a bit like marbles but instead of glass balls the games is based around the thrill of catching another dooman's pigeons. The birds are firstly kept from mating as long as possible in order to 'build up steam'. Doomen then send male or female birds up in an effort to entice members of...