Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
halved the island's population of 500 in the mid-nineteenth century. One of the more
intriguing exhibits is part of the stern belonging to the Guy Mannering , a sailing packet
on the New York to Liverpool route which sank in machair in 1865 - indeed, it was
just one of twenty or so vessels believed to have been lost in waters hereabouts around
that time. At a bend in the road, just south of the manse, stands the slender, fifteenth-
century MacLean's Cross , a fine, late medieval example of the distinctive, flowing,
three-leaved foliage of the Iona school.
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St Oran's Chapel
Iona's oldest building, the plain-looking eleventh-century St Oran's Chapel , lies south
of the abbey, on the right. Legend has it that the original chapel could only be
completed through human sacrifice. Oran apparently volunteered to be buried alive,
and was found to have survived the ordeal when the grave was opened a few days
later. Declaring that he had seen hell and it wasn't all bad, he was promptly reinterred
for blasphemy.
Reilig Odhrain
Oran's Chapel stands at the centre of Iona's sacred burial ground, Reilig Odhráin (Oran's
Cemetery), which is said to contain the graves of sixty kings of Norway, Ireland, France
and Scotland, including Duncan and Macbeth. he best of the early Christian
gravestones and medieval e gies that once lay in the Reilig Odhráin have been
removed to the Abbey Museum, behind the abbey, and to various other locations
within the complex.
Street of the Dead
Approaching the abbey from the ticket o ce, you cross an exposed section of the
evocative medieval Street of the Dead , whose giant pink-granite cobbles once
stretched from the abbey, past St Oran's Chapel, to the village. Beside the road
stands the most impressive of Iona's Celtic high crosses, the eighth-century
St Martin's Cross , smothered with figural scenes - the Virgin and Child at the centre,
Daniel in the lion's den, Abraham sacrificing Isaac, and David with musicians in the
shaft below. he reverse side features Pictish serpent-and-boss decoration. Standing
directly in front of the abbey are the base of St Matthew's Cross (the rest of which is
in the Abbey Museum) and, to the left, a concrete cast of the eighth-century
St John's Cross , decorated with serpent-and-boss and Celtic spiral ornamental
panels. Before you enter the abbey, take a look inside St Columba's Shrine , a small
steep-roofed chamber to the left of the main entrance. Columba is believed to have
been buried either here or under the rocky mound to the west of the abbey, known
as Tórr an Aba.
Iona Abbey
A 5min walk up the road from the Heritage Centre • Daily: April-Sept 9.30am-5.30pm; Oct-March 9.30am-4.30pm; there are free daily
guided tours of the abbey (the times are posted up at the ticket o ce) • £7.10; HS • T 01681 700512
Although no buildings remain from Columba's time, the present Iona Abbey dates
from the arrival of the Benedictines in around 1200, though it was extensively
rebuilt in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, and restored virtually wholesale
last century.
he Abbey itself has been simply and sensitively restored to incorporate the
original elements. You can spot many of the medieval capitals in the south aisle of
the choir and in the south transept, where the white marble e gies of the eighth
Duke of Argyll and his wife, Ina, lie in a side chapel - an incongruous piece of
Victorian pomp in an otherwise modest and tranquil place. he finest
pre-Reformation e gy is that of John MacKinnon, the last abbot of Iona, who died
around 1500, and now lies on the south side of the choir steps. For reasons of
 
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