The new year has just begun, and we’ve already posted two new sacred site reports. One tells the story of Native Californian sacred sites that are hidden in plain sight throughout the Bay Area, and of the struggle to protect them. The other — written by Rob Wild (Toby’s co-editor for the 2008 IUCN Sacred Natural Sites guidelines) and excerpted from a new book titled “Sacred Natural Sites: Conserving Nature and Culture” — is about a unique Celtic Christian site in England.

Shellmounds of the Bay Area, California

Beneath the streets and all along the estuaries of the San Francisco and San Pablo Bay region lie ancient remnants of the daily and sacred lives of California’s native peoples. Pavement and buildings now mostly cover what used to be hundreds of shellmounds — gently rounded hills formed from accumulated layers of organic material deposited over generations by native coastal dwellers. Often the sites of burials and spiritual ceremonies, these shellmounds are still places for veneration. But preserving the remaining shellmounds has proven to be a contentious issue among developers, indigenous rights groups, preservationists and local governments … Read more.

Holy Island of Lindisfarne, England

The Holy Island of Lindisfarne has been a Christian holy site and pilgrimage center since 635, playing a pivotal role as a cradle of Christianity in northern England and southern Scotland. Nature and spirituality are very much linked here through a line of “nature saints,” of which St. Cuthbert — considered by some as England’s first conservationist — is best known in the area. Lindisfarne more recently has become a node in the revival of Celtic Christianity — an indigenous, if somewhat contested, type of Christianity where the spiritual values of nature are overtly expressed. Recent years have seen an increasing number of pilgrimages, and visitors are now estimated to exceed half a million per year, placing strains on this small community as well as on the island and surrounding coastal habitat, most of which is an official national nature reserve. The challenge today is to strike the best balance between spiritual, natural, community and economic values and interests … Read more.