Can you see the railing and sign on the far right side of the building? Guess what’s down there.
There’s a crypt, there’s a crypt with an ossuary and a video presentation about the inhabitants of the ossuary.
Basically, they discovered a 7-8th century graveyard in the dunes surrounding the castle. From the remains, archaeologists were able to determine things about their daily life, and then they were placed into boxes and put into the crypt.
The church is quite interesting inside too. (There’s a guided walk leaflet.) It does back to the 12th cenury, but there’s not much left of that building except for bits like the right hand window (the shape is different to the others).
Originally, St Aidan (remember him from Holy Island) erected a wooden church here. The story goes that he was leaning against a wall beam when he died. After that, the beam survived two fires and it’s considered miraculous. Now it is in the roof of the current church.
There is an effigy of Grace Darling (of the lighthouse resece) which used to out in the grave yard but has been replaced by a newer one. Across the road from the church is a Grace Darling museum.
And a unknown knight effigy.
