System 13 » maps http://system13.org Thu, 31 Mar 2011 03:11:28 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1.3 Google Maps and the Isle of Lindisfarne http://system13.org/2008/05/09/google-maps-and-the-isle-of-lindisfarne/ http://system13.org/2008/05/09/google-maps-and-the-isle-of-lindisfarne/#comments Fri, 09 May 2008 17:42:41 +0000 Josh http://system13.org/?p=545 Continue reading →]]> Earlier today I was reading some of Magnus Magnusson’s Scotland: Story of a Nation, which led me off on a bit of a peculiar web path. In the text, Lindisfarne Island was mentioned a few times, which is the site of the first Viking Age invasion in England. They attacked on June 8th of 793AD, sacking the abbey there.

I realized that while I was very familiar with the tale of the Viking’s attack, I wasn’t sure where exactly Lindisfarne Island was. I had it in my head that it was on the west coast of the England, but this ended up being wrong. Wikipedia informed me that it’s actually on the northeast coast of England. The article also told me that Lindisfarne is a tidal island. I wanted to get a better overall feel of the area, so I looked up the island on Google Maps, and in playing around with the zoom, I realized that one shot that was in use had caught the island during high tide; the other, during low tide. It’s actually pretty neat to see:


Lindisfarne at high tide

Lindisfarne island, minus the surrounding water
Lindisfarne at low tide

While you can see the differences here, it’s actually easier to see it at Google Maps, where you can zoom in and out to see the transition. Just punch in these coords at Google Maps: 55.679°N, 1.808°W (or just click here).

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