92 String Duet: 20 to 21 September: The Sacred Isle of Iona

We caught the ferry from Fionnphort, Mull to Baile Mor, Iona in the afternoon.

It's a cute town on the tiny island. The people are friendly and very proud of their island, and rightly so. It's an incredibly beautiful place, and it's home to some of the most prominent and sacred sites in Celtic Christendom.

This is the Benedictine abbey that lies on the location originally settled by St. Columba in 563 AD.

The site is marked with numerous high crosses, which were quiet revolutionary at the time. Infact, although it seems remote to us today, Iona was once in a very central location along the sea highway, during a time when most long distance travel was occurring by boat. Iona was a center of great learning and innovation. Above is a recreation of St John's high cross, built in the cross's original location.

This is MacLean's high cross, dating to the 15th century.

The abbey has a long history and is still used by the very active church community on Iona. It is visited by frequent pilgrims from all parts of the world. It's beautiful inside, and very well kept up. Visitors are welcome to tour the abbey as long as it is not during one of the two services per day.

Amazing to see the ferns growing inside the Abbey walls. This is actually a good sign we were told- it means the abbey walls are breathing.

Within the abbey are the graves of the Duke and Duchess of Argyll, who funded the rebuilding of the Benedictine abbey at the Iona Abbey in the early 1900s and deeded the land in perpetuity. Their interest in the site was critical to preserving the Abbey, and they're well revered for their gift. The Duchess' remains are entombed here, but the Duke's have been moved.

A depiction of St Columba (or in Gaelic, 'Colum Cille') in stain glass. Born in Donegal, Ireland, Columba founded the monastery on Iona in 563 AD when he left his homeland with 12 followers to spread the word of Christianity. From his raised wooden scriptorium hut above the monastery, he would compose hymns and poems. He was known for his many miracles, for expelling demons, calming seas and taming wild beasts. A good man to have around! As abbot, he made many a journey to the powerful rulers in western Scotland at the time- if you remember from our Loch Ness post- he even made it to Urqhart castle to visit the pict king!

Inside the cloister, where monks would pray and meditate.

A view of a modern sculpture in the centre of the cloister. It's been restored very well, and the dorms and cloister are used today by religious groups and theologians visiting the Abbey.

Glad to have a full night's sleep, we don't think we could hack it as monks or nuns.

The abbey is home to some impressive gravestones. As Iona is a holy place, naturally kings and powerful people with the means necessary, wanted to be buried here in sacred ground.

These two grave stones date back to approximately 1500 (L) and 1100 AD (R).

(above) This is believed to be the gravestone of Angus MacDonald, a warrior born on Islay, who died in 1318. According to Robert the Bruce, Angus was instrumental in the scots winning the battle of 1314 in Bannockburn. Note the galley at the top- this may have been placed on the grave stone to indicate his abilities to raise a seafaring army.

Near the Abbey is the Nunnery. Built initially in the 1200s, it's beautiful to tour and to contemplate the lives of the women who lived here so many centuries ago.

Camping is quite restricted on the island, so we stayed at a paid campsite. It was drizzling when we set up the tent, and by the time we were ready to eat it was a steady and hard downpour. Yuck! We rode the one mile into town and had dinner at a restaurant, staying several hours to stay dry and warm. It rained almost the whole night after that!

The next morning it was sunny for a bit. Not too bad, really. We were staying in a hostel Monday night, so we packed up the soaked tent and went to town.

The rest of Monday was nice weather, if a bit variables at times, so we decided it was time to give ourselves a veeeeery special treat. Here's a clue.....

And you can read more about that in the next post!

We finally got to pet a sheep! This one is at the croft where the hostel is located. His name is 007 because that's the number that's on his ear tag, and he eats whole wheat bread. And very excitedly!

We've wanted to pet sheep since we got here, but they're very skittish. This one didn't really like it, either, but we could sneak in a head-pat between bites of bread.

This is the beautiful white sand beach at the NE corner of the island that is remembered as the site of a terrible massacre of monks by Viking invaders in 986 AD. As word of the success and wealth of Iona spread, of course it attracted Vikings, who raided the island on multiple occasions (795, 825, 986 AD). In 807 AD, the Abbot Cellach moved many holy relics, and sacred texts to Kells, in Ireland for safekeeping from the pesky Vikings. The beautiful and famous book of Kells is now accepted as being written on Iona. Indeed, now scholars believe Iona was at the center of Christian sophistication and its influence sent ripples throughout Celtic Christian sites in the area.