There she settled for a time, leading a life of exemplary piety, then, fearing the raids of pirates which were starting along the coast, she moved over to Northumbria". The most likely time for this would have been after AD 850 when the Vikings were settling in Ireland.

The account of Bega's flight from Ireland is found in the Life of St Bega, (Tomlinson in his translation 'inserts phrases and indeed whole sentences of his own devising, without any warning' and therefore should be avoided) part of