The very name of Iona conjures up wonderful images of one of the most fascinating places we’ve visited in Scotland! It remains one of the country’s most treasured sacred sites in Scotland…

 

We travelled there in 2003, 2004, and again in 2006, and each visit left a lasting impression on us. The magic wasn’t limited to Iona alone, but extended to Mull and Staffa as well, each island having an irresistible charm, though very different from that of the Isle of Iona and lacking its sacred atmosphere.

This is actually my second post dedicated to Iona; I first wrote about this magical place on March 6th, 2015, in an article titled The Best of Scotland – Argyll & The Isles: Iona… today I would like to revisit it with you, focusing on the most emblematic sacred monuments and vestiges of the place: the Abbey of course including its Church and Cloisters, the Celtic Crosses, Reilig Odhrain, the very ancient churchyard where many kings are buried, the Nunnery, a few mythical beaches, Dun I…

Our virtual journey, inspired by our own experiences and the accounts of a few well-known travellers, should enable us to discover or rediscover, as if we were actually there, a number of interesting places linked to the sacred history of Iona.

 

Arrival at Baile Mòr

 

The first time we approached Iona, it felt as though we were drifting into another world. The sea stretched endlessly around us, brushed with shifting light, while the wind carried that unmistakable salty scent of the Hebrides. Everything seemed softer, quieter—almost suspended in time. The white cottages, Dun I, the beach and, dominating the place, the impressive buildings of the Abbey…  we were already under Iona’s spell…

We are in one of the most symbol-laden places in the Celtic world. Iona feels less like an island than a threshold — a meeting point where earth, sea, and spirit breathe together.

Every stone seems alive with memory, every silence charged with echoes of faith and myth.

Iona Abbey

Historical notes

• • Iona Abbey is one of the oldest Christian religious centres in Western Europe and was a focal point for the spread of Christianity throughout Scotland.
  • The Abbey was founded in the 6th century, along with its monastic community, by Saint Columba and his twelve companions who arrived there in 563, when Iona was part of the Kingdom of Dál Riata.

• Saint Aidan served as a monk there in the 7th century before helping to re-establish Christianity in Northumberland, on the island of Lindisfarne.
• In the 12th century, the Macdonald lords of Clan Donald made Iona the ecclesiastical capital of the royal family of Macdonald, and subsequent Lords of the Isles into the early 16th century endowed and maintained the abbey, church and nunnery. Two of the Macdonalds (each named Angus) became Bishops of the Isles with the bishop’s seat at Iona. Saint Oran’s Chapel was the burial place for the Lords as evidenced by their grave slabs.
• From 1207 to 1493, the early Clan Donald and its Lords of the Isles were entirely central to Iona Abbey’s medieval existence, development and prestige.
• The Iona Abbey church was in all but name The Macdonald’s Cathedral of The Isles.
• The medieval Iona Abbey, as seen today (restored in the 20th century), is largely the legacy of the 15th-century Clan Donald Lords of the Isles and their Clan Donald Abbots and Bishops.
• Today, Iona Abbey is the spiritual home of the Iona Community, an ecumenical Christian religious order, whose headquarters are in Glasgow.
• The Abbey remains a popular site of Christian pilgrimage today.

Not to be missed in the Abbey Church : 

The altar and choir

The modern altar is made from Iona marble.

The baptismal font

This beautiful baptismal font was installed in 1913. It is made partly from marble quarried on the island.

The carved capitals

The stained glass windows

A luminous presence within the austerity of stone…

Among the many beautiful details within Iona Abbey, the stained-glass window of Saint Columba is especially moving. In the quiet austerity of the stone church, its coloured light brings warmth, tenderness and a sense of living presence. More than a decorative feature, it feels like a visual remembrance of the saint who gave Iona its spiritual destiny — a luminous tribute to the monk, pilgrim and founder whose memory still seems to inhabit the island.

 

The abbey’s stained-glass windows are not medieval survivals, but part of its modern spiritual rebirth.

According to the abbey’s audio guide, the four stained-glass windows were created by Scottish artist Douglas Strachan and were given to the abbey in 1939–40…  more than ever in these dark times of war, the restored abbey needed not only walls and arches, but also light…

The Book of Kells 

The Book of Kells is one of the most extraordinary illuminated manuscripts in the world. It contains the four Gospels in Latin — Matthew, Mark, Luke and John — together with introductory texts and canon tables. It was created around the year 800, on vellum, by monastic scribes and artists of astonishing skill.

Many scholars believe it was begun at Iona and perhaps later continued or completed at Kells, though its exact place of origin is still discussed.

The manuscript is celebrated for its:

• monumental decorated initials
• intricate Celtic-style interlace
• symbolic animals and hidden figures
• pages designed almost like icons rather than ordinary text
• extraordinary ornamental detail, often compared to metalwork or jewellery in visual richness

Three Celtic Crosses…

On Iona, the great carved crosses are not simply monuments: they are witnesses. They have stood through salt wind, Viking terror, monastic prayer, pilgrimage, ruin, restoration, and centuries of human longing.

The three most evocative crosses to discover on Iona are St Martin’s Cross, St John’s Cross, and MacLean’s Cross. Together, they tell the story of an island that was not only holy, but also artistically revolutionary.

On the above photo we can see two of the most famous Celtic crosses of Iona: St Martin’s Cross on the right and St John’s Cross on the left…

St Martin’s Cross

 

Standing outside the abbey, St Martin Cross is the best-preserved early high cross on the island, and one of the finest in the British Isles. Carved from a single block of stone, it dates to around 750–800, and is believed to have stood on or near its original site for over twelve centuries.

This remarkable stone masterpiece bears witness to the monks’ devotion to St Martin of Tours  and reflects the skill of the sculptors who created it, just as the magnificent illuminated pages of the Book of Kells—which is believed to have been begun by St Columba at Iona rather than at Kells—reflect the expertise and artistic talent of the scribes at St Columba’s monastery.

The west face of St Martin’s Cross which can be seen on the above photo is decorated with scenes from the Bible including the Virgin and Child, Daniel in the Lions’ Den, David and Goliath, and David with Saul. The hidden face is decorated with bosses and interwoven serpents, typical decorative symbols of Christian carving of this period.

St John’s Cross

Contrary to St Martin’s Cross, St John Cross, which is situated near the abbey, is a replica. The original, an 8th-century high cross, was moved indoors for protection and is now preserved in the abbey museum. That was a wise decision: this is one of the most important carved crosses in the entire early medieval world. Historic Environment Scotland describes it as exceptionally significant and notes that some scholars have argued it may be the world’s first ringed high cross.

McLean’s Cross

The nearby information panel reads : “This tall free-standing cross was probably erected in the fifteenth century. The solid wheel-head depicts the crucifixion. The broad faces are carved with an interlace pattern continuing the celtic tradition.”

A Fourth Celtic Cross not far from the Abbey

In 1926, Iona Campbell the Duchess of Argyll — whose very name, Iona, echoed the island’s spirit — was laid to rest here, beneath the same skies where kings and saints had found their peace. A pink marble cross still stands by the roadside, its presence like a whispered link between history and grace.

 

St Mary’s Abbey Museum

Next to  the abbey, St Mary’s Abbey Museum,  shelters one of the richest collections of early Christian sculpture in Scotland.

A number of well-preserved slabs carved with coats of arms and effigies of knights

Among its treasures are very ancient grave slabs — intricate carvings of knights, monks, and clan chiefs –  each of them born from a unique page of history, each of them murmuring a mysterious story…

One corner of the museum holds what tradition calls St. Columba’s pillow — a simple stone said to have rested beneath the head of the saint himself. I can’t help thinking that, saint though he was, Columba must have found some way to make his stone pillow a little more comfortable 😉

Nearby stand majestic crosses — the St. John’s Cross, the impressive concrete replica of which stands in front of the abbey and the St. Oran’s Cross…

 

Reilig Odhrain & St Oran Chapel

 

“I am very desirous of viewing the tombs of the kings, described by the Dean of the Isles, and from him by Buchanan: the former says that in his time there were three, built in the form of little chapels:

on one was inscribed ‘Tumulus REGUM Scotiae’. In this were deposited the remains of forty- eight Scottish monarchs, beginning with Fergus II and ending with the famous Macbeth:

Of the Scottish monarchs interred in Iona, sixteen are pretended to be of the race of Alpin, and are styled, Rigbrid Ailpeanaeh.

The next was inscribed ‘Tumulus REGUM Hiberniae’, containing four Irish monarchs ;

the third, ‘Tumulus REGUM Norwegiae’ containing eight Norwegian princes, or more probably viceroys of the Hebrides, while they were subject to that crown.”

(In Search of Angels by Alistair Moffat)

Resting there : 48 Scottish monarchs, 4 Irish kings and 8 Norwegian princes…

Standing quietly within Reilig Odhráin, the island’s ancient burial ground, St Oran’s Chapel is one of the most haunting places on Iona. Built in the 12th century, probably as a burial chapel for the descendants of Somerled, it later became closely associated with the Lords of the Isles, whose presence still lingers among the surrounding graves and carved stones.

The chapel and graveyard are linked to St Oran (Odhrán), a companion of Saint Columba, and to one of Iona’s darkest and most enduring legends. According to tradition, the first church on the island could not be made to stand until Oran offered himself as a living sacrifice and was buried beneath its foundations. Some versions of the story say that when his grave was later opened, he briefly returned to speech and revealed unsettling truths about death and the next world….

The lovely ruins of the Nunnery

 

Iona Nunnery is one of the island’s quietest and most beautiful sacred places. Founded around 1200, as an Augustinian nunnery, and traditionally associated with Bethóc, sister of Ranald son of Somerled, it remains one of the most remarkable medieval religious sites in Scotland.

Its graceful ruins still evoke a life of prayer, enclosure and simplicity. Less imposing than the abbey, yet perhaps more intimate, it carries a deeply peaceful atmosphere — as though the silence, devotion and hidden lives once sheltered there had never entirely left its stones.

Let’s sit for a moment in the tranquility of these picturesque ruins and listen to the whisper of these deeply moving old stones…

Listening to the whisper of these stones is no mere image to me. I remember, as if it were yesterday, that morning in the very early hours of the day. We were silently taking in the beauty and peacefulness of the place, each of us wandering off to capture it from a different corner of the site. There was nobody around but a woman, quietly painting the scene — the ruins and flowers, the blue sky and the sea… quite a lovely view indeed.

Then, suddenly, I stopped, listening intently.
“What’s that?” I asked my husband. “The music — can you hear it?”
“What music?” he replied.

Yet I could swear it sounded like the distant echo of wonderful songs sung by women.

Mythical Beaches

Martyr’s Bay

St. Columba’s Bay

Traigh an t-Suidhe

The Bay at the Back of the Ocean.

The Bay at the Back of the Ocean (Scottish Gaelic: Camas Cuil an t-Saimh) is a wide, west facing bay on the island of Iona, Argyll and Bute, Scotland, and is so named because the next westward stop is North America.

Behind the beach is the machair, a wide grassed area that houses communal sheep grazing for the island, and the local golf course. It is the half-way point of the most popular walk on the island.

As its name implies, The Bay at the Back of the Ocean faces directly into the vast expanse of the Atlantic Ocean, situated on the western side of the island. It is arguably Iona’s most impressive and wild beach, with an expansive, windswept coastline of pure white sand. The powerful waves that roll in here are a constant, mesmerising presence, embodying the raw, untamed nature of the Scottish coast.

A walk along this immense beach provides an unforgettable experience. The sound of the surf is a constant, rhythmic melody, and the expansive horizon offers a humbling sense of isolation and grandeur. This is the perfect place to watch a Hebridean sunset, as the sun dips below the horizon in a spectacular display of colour. The surrounding machair grasslands are a haven for corncrakes and other unique flora and fauna, adding to the sense of wild, unspoiled beauty.  (Mull Directory)

Sheep peacefully grazing on the tender grass and small flowers of the machair near the Bay at the Back of the Ocean :

Traigh Ban beach.

Dun I

Dun I watches over Iona like a silent guardian…

Climbing to the top of Dun I is definitely worth the effort; it’s not actually that high, and we came back down with our heads full of memories and some stunning photos , as the weather was very nice that day and the horizon quite clear.

Dun I is an ancient hillfort perched at the northern tip of Iona, rising approximately 101 meters above sea level. Its rocky promontory overlooks the Sound of Iona separating Iona from Mull, the rolling hills and beaches of the island, the village of Baile Mor, the Abbey. From this vantage point, one can also glimpse the distant Hebridean coast, giving a clear sense of the island’s strategic position and its commanding views across both land and sea.

Three great books to read…

 

“Iona of my heart, Iona of my love…”

“Iona of my heart, Iona of my love,
Instead of monks’ voices shall be the lowing of cattle;
But ere the world shall come to an end, Iona shall be as it was.”

(St. Columba)

That man is little to be envied whose patriotism would not gain force upon the plains of Marathon,

or whose piety would not grow warmer among the ruins of Iona.”

(Samuel Johnson)

On the wonderful island of Iona, the visible and invisible brush close — history, myth, and the wild beauty of the island entwined inviting us to pause and contemplate, to imagine what lies beyond our understanding, beyond appearances…

No one has expressed this better than Alistair Moffat, who, in his many books—each more fascinating than the last—recounts his ceaseless quest to uncover Scotland’s history. In his book *In Search of Angels*, the chapter devoted to his experience on the Isle of Iona is particularly vivid and enriching… and for us it is an invitation to travel… an invitation to return to Iona…

We hope this page will inspire you too to set off on the roads of Scotland in search of the most beautiful and legendary places, such as Iona…

Bonne lecture et à bientôt pour un autre voyage en la belle Alba.

Mairiuna