Athelney is a small village located in the Sedgemoor district of Somerset, England. The village, near North Petherton, is built around the Isle of Athelney, once a very low isolated island in the 'very great swampy and impassable marshes' of the Somerset Levels.

Isle of Athelney

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The Isle of Athelney is best known for once being the fortress hiding place of King Alfred the Great, from where he went on to defeat the Danes at the Battle of Edington in May 878.

Archaeological excavations and written evidence indicate that at the time of Alfred the island was linked by a causeway to East Lyng, with either end protected by a semi-circular stockade and ditch. The ditch on the island is now known to date from the Iron Age. It is therefore presumed that the Isle was known by Alfred to have been an ancient fort, and that its existing defences were strengthened by him. Evidence of metalworking on the site suggests that he also used the island to equip his army. When translated from the Anglo-Saxon, the name of the isle, Æthelinga íeg, is often thought to mean the Island of Princes; if correct this might suggest that the island had royal connections prior to Alfred.

To give thanks for his victory, in 888 Alfred founded a monastery on the Isle that lasted until the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1539, under King Henry VIII of England. The location of the monastry, on top of the isle, is marked by a Victorian monument.

The Isle is distinguished as being the site of the 1st and 100th Time Team television archaeology programmes.

See also

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• Museum

Villages in Somerset | Somerset Levels | Locations featured in Time Team | Æðelinga īeg