Iona Abbey

Iona Abbey stands on the small island of Iona, off the Isle of Mull on Scotland’s west coast. The abbey is one of the oldest Christian centres in Western Europe, founded in 563 by Saint Columba and his twelve companions. For centuries it served as a key site for the spread of Christianity among the Picts and Scots. In the 7th century, Saint Aidan trained here before helping restore Christianity in Northumberland at Lindisfarne. The Macdonald Lords of Clan Donald made the abbey their ecclesiastical capital in the 12th century, shaping its medieval development. The abbey’s long history is marked by figures like Angus Macdonald, twice Bishop of the Isles, and by St Oran’s Chapel, where Lords of the Isles were buried beneath carved grave slabs. Viking raids in the 9th century forced monks to flee to Kells, but Iona remained a sacred site. Later, in the 15th century, the Macdonald Lords expanded the abbey church into what became their Cathedral of the Isles. After the Reformation, the site fell into ruin until 19th-century restorations revived its role as a spiritual centre. Visitors today find a restored medieval church, a nunnery founded by Bethóc, daughter of Somerled, and the remains of earlier wooden and stone buildings. The abbey church reflects the 15th-century work of the Macdonalds, while St Oran’s Chapel holds historic grave markers. Nearby, Torr an Aba, a small mound where Columba worked, still shows traces of his day room. The abbey church stands within a landscape shaped by ancient ditches and earthworks, linking past and present.