For some 1,500 years Iona has been revered as Scotland’s holy island. Aside from stone crosses and parts of some walls, little remains physically of the monastery where Saint Columba and many generations of monks worked and prayed. Most of the church depicted is a modern restoration, but it perpetuates the memory of the achievements of the Irish monastic movement.

Although he is the patron saint of Scotland, Columba was born and bred in Ireland. Coming from an aristocratic Irish family, he had the respect of many Irish nobles including those who established the kingdom of Dalriada on the west coast of Scotland.

It is not clear why the island of Iona became the site of an important monastery, but it may well have had something to do with the Picts, the earliest inhabitants of Britain actually given a name (though they probably used a different term to refer to themselves). The cemetery on Iona may well date back to Pictish times, that is, before the coming of the Irish-speaking settlers of Dalriada. In any case, the graveyard holds the remains of many subsequent Scottish kings including Macbeth.

Both during and after Columba’s time, Iona served as headquarters for an energetic clergy intent on converting many communities in the nearby highlands and islands of Scotland. Moreover, the efforts of Iona clerics extended all the way to northern England, as they had a cordial relationship with the royal family of Northumbria, which encouraged the monks to build churches and monasteries there. The Iona community also contributed much to the arts: it seems likely that the masterpiece known as the Book of Kells was penned on the island.