Viking activity in the British Isles occurred during the Early Middle Ages, the 8th to the 11th centuries, when Vikings from Scandinavia travelled to Great Britain and Ireland to settle, trade, or raid. Those who came to the British Isles have been generally referred to as Vikings, but some scholars debate whether the term Viking represented all Viking settlers or just those who raided.At the start of the Early Medieval period, Scandinavian kingdoms had developed trade links reaching as far as southern Europe and the Mediterranean, giving them access to foreign imports, such as silver, gold, bronze, and spices. These trade links also extended westwards into Ireland and Britain.In the last decade of the eighth century, Viking raiders sacked a series of Christian monasteries located in what is now the United Kingdom, beginning in 793 with a raid on the coastal monastery of Lindisfarne on the north-east coast of England. The following year they sacked the nearby MonkwearmouthJarrow Abbey, and, in 795, they attacked again, raiding Iona Abbey on Scotland's west coast.

Lindisfarne, also called Holy Island, is a tidal island off the northeast coast of England, which constitutes the civil parish of Holy Island in Northumberland. Holy Island has a recorded history from the 6th century AD; it was an important centre of Celtic Christianity under Saints Aidan of Lindisfarne, Cuthbert, Eadfrith of Lindisfarne and Eadberht of Lindisfarne. After the Viking invasions and the Norman conquest of England, a priory was re-established. A small castle was built on the island in 1550.