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Iona, Island of, Argyll and Bute, is just off the extreme South West of the large island of Mull in the Inner Hebrides. The little island of Iona has, though for a different reason, a fame worldwide like that of the immense Inner Hebridean Skye. It was on Iona that in A.D. 563 St Columba landed from Ireland and began the effective Christianization of Scotland. A place of pilgrimage and veneration throughout the centuries for reasons of faith, it has also been the cradle of the Celtic Kingdom of Scotland.

The island is 3 miles long and 1½ miles wide. The strait that separates it from Mull, with which it is connected by ferry, is only ¾ mile wide. Steamers also call at Iona from Oban. It has a hotel, and some of the islanders take in guests. The Iona Community was founded in 1938 by the Rev. George F. MacLeod. With a D.D. from Glasgow University he became Dr MacLeod. He succeeded to a baronetcy in 1944, but specifically asked not to be addressed by the title. As an ex-Moderator of the Church of Scotland (1957—8) he became the Very Rev., and was made a life peer in 1967 as Lord MacLeod of Fuinary.

Even if Iona were without its strong religious and historical associations, this remarkable little Hebridean island would surely attract visitors to the West of Scotland. Remote enough to remain well off the beaten track of tourism, it is accessible enough for all who wish to get there. Its polychromatic beauty and splendid setting have inspired some of the best Scottish painting.

For 34 years after his landing, St Columba, despite his successful missionary wanderings on the mainland, kept his headquarters firmly established on Iona. The buildings of his original foundation, being of daub and wattle, have long disappeared. They were probably where the later monastery buildings of stone stood. After Columba's death in A.D. 597, the foundation and the island suffered terribly from the savagery of Norse and pagan invasion, but the faith lived on in the tenacity of the monks. Their tenacity was rewarded, for, though the primitive simplicity of their rule and foundation was to go, Christianity, which they had introduced into Scotland, survived in Scotland and intensely on Iona.

Somerled, a Celtic chief of Argyll, having married into the Norwegian royal family, eventually secured recognized possession of Iona. His son established a community of Benedictine monks on the island, which, though it maintained the Christian faith in this holy place, had the sad effect of turning out the last of the genuine Columban Catholic monks. This led to friction between the Irish and Scottish Celts, but the Benedictine foundation, also called “St Columba's Monastery”, continued until the establishment of the Reformation in Scotland in 1560.

Meanwhile, through the centuries of suffering, invasion, warfare, and constant devotion to the rule and memory of their saintly and vigorous founder, Columba, the monks had made of their island a place recognized in western Christendom as an unrivalled seat of holiness. It became a burial-place for kings not only from Scotland and Ireland and Norway, but, it is claimed, from France. Certainly, Kenneth MacAlpine, the first Celtic king of Scotland, lies there, as well as many chiefs of the Isles. For more than 400 years, to achieve burial in Iona was to have gained as one's last resting-place that island of the West which was held to be nearest to heaven.

During the reign of Abbot Mackinnon, the last Abbot of Iona, the island became the cathedral centre for the bishopric of the Isles. After the Reformation the monastery was suppressed, and eventually the MacLeans of Duart seized the island from the now moribund bishopric. But the Presbyterian system of worship under the reformed Kirk of Scotland continued, of course, on the island. In 1693, Iona came under the overlordship of the Campbells of Argyll, and in 1899 the 8^th Duke of Argyll presented to the Church of Scotland the ruins of the abbey, expressing the hope that it might be re-roofed and made available for public worship. The first service that took place in the reconditioned building occurred in June 1910.

Just before the Second World War, Iona was much invigorated by the foundation of the Iona Community under the Rev. George MacLeod. As a result of his energetic and individual guidance, it has had a considerable influence throughout Scotland. The abbey is now a place of regular religious service; the old conventual buildings were finely restored by that sensitive and highly knowledgeable Scottish architect, the late Mr Ian Lindsay.

The remains of the old monastery, the restored abbey, the conventual buildings, and the burial place of the kings all lie within easy reach of the landing place of the ferry. Having inspected these outward and visible signs of the continuing Christian faith of Iona, and of the fact that this Celtic island was the cradle of the Kingdom of Scotland, the visitor should go into the island itself. He should certainly go to the small bay at the South of the island where, by a tradition that we have no reason to doubt, Columba first landed on his voyage from Ireland. This place is inviolate, and looks exactly as it must have done 14 centuries ago.

The visitor should also ascend the small hill of Dun I, the highest point on the island, yet only 332 ft. where there is erected a cairn in St Columba's honour.

Nearby islands: Isle of Coll, Isle of Mull, Isle of Tiree

Nearby villages: Bunessan, Craignure, Fidden, Salen

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