|
Isle of Iona - Isle of Mull
________________________________________________________________________
Reporting on his Tour of the Hebrides in 1773, Dr Johnson said of the Island of Iona 'That man is little to be envied...whose piety would not grow warmer among the ruins of Iona.' It is not the Abbey Church, nor the Nunnery nor the other restored buildings which make Iona such a remarkable place today but the colours, contours and context of the island itself and, most of all, its community.There were people living there when the Irish prince named Columba landed there in 563 AD with his 12 companions to establish a Christian church, and the islanders remained when the Later Benedictine cathedral lay in ruins after the Reformation.
Columba was born in Donegal in 521 AD, the descendant of the Irish king Neil of the Nine Hostages. Becoming a scholar and a warrior priest, he was involved in a bloody conflict with the King and was forced to leave his native country, sailing with his loyal companions in a skin and hazelwood currach to land in a bay at the south end of Iona still called 'Port na Curaich'. the built their cells round Tor Abb, west of the present abbey, and from this tiny settlement Christian missionaries travelled to the rest of Scotland and parts of England. For two centuries the remote settlement influenced the development of Christianity in Scotland and Ireland, until Norse raiders descended on Iona three times between 795 and 806 AD, carrying off corn, cattle and women from the farms and religious treasures from the monastery, and slaughtering many monks on the sands of Martyr's Bay as they left. The monks retained some of their old ways until 1203 when the abbey was built by the Black Friars, or Benedictines. From 1609 the significance of the island dimished and only the ruins of the cathedral served as a reminder of its former status.
However, in 1938 a remarkable minister named Dr. George MacLeod of Glasgow, revived the Celtic tradition of worker priests and gathered together a small group of ministers, students and unemployed craftsmen to rebuild the cathedral. ''Work is worship' became -and still is - the principle theme of the Iona Community. Building continued through World War Two, the roof of the refectory being constructed of timber washed ashore from a shipwreck on Mull. The rebuilding is complete now, but the work of the community continues among the poor and disadvantaged. The new MacLeod Centre is used to encourage youth participation in the Community.
The abbey is open to the public now, and considerable work has been done by archaelogist in excavating and preserving the site. The foundations of the Columban settlement and the pathway to the graveyard - the Street of the Dead- have been exposed, and a collection of medieval burial slabs has been housed in the Michael Chapel. Outside the abbey's west door there are two ornate Centic crosses and a small chapel in which two stone cists are concealed beneath the floor. South of the abbey St. Oran's chapel, now completely restored, stands in the ancient burial ground said to contain the graves of 48 kings of Scotland, 4 kings of Ireland and 8 kings of Norway. The Nunnery is located in the village, well away from the monastery, following the Columban belief that women caused conflict - .....'where there is a woman there is mischief'. Within its walls the gardens are kept in good order by volunteers, and the produce is used in the Community kitchen.
The village at the head of the pier has well stocked shops, a post office, an hotel, guest houses and a hostel. In the 18th century the dwellings were descrbed as 'mostly very mean, thatched with straw of barley which was bound tight on the roof with ropes made of heath'. In 1802 to 1804 the Duke of Argyll decided to reorganise the farms on the island and laid the foundations of the present viillage, building new houses with thatched hip roofs. The island, apart from the Church land and the crofts which purchased by the tenants, is now held on behalf of the nation by the National Trust.
Away from the crowds on the East side of Iona visitors will discover its real character and extraordinary beauty. There are superb beaches facing the Atlantic swell, and behind them the machair, a wide expanse of soft green grass, dusted with the sand from the shore and in the summer vivid with wild flowers. North of the machair there are several beautiful bays with headlands where seabirds nest among the thrift and seals swirl in the surf and bask on the rocks. Across the croft land south of Sligneach there are the remains of the old marble quarry, worked from medieval times until 1914, and at this end of the island it is possible to find sea-polished pebbles of this clear, green serpentine rock said to pprotect travellers who carry them from drowning) scattered at the tideline. Visitors who choose to remain on the island for a few days fall under its almost mystical spell of peace and tranquillity.
|
Recent Additions
Under Development
|