Description:

This historic site remains a lively center of Christianity. Founded by St Columba in 563, the original monastery on Iona became a hub of Christian learning. Remarkable works of art were created here, including the world-famous Book of Kells. Despite enduring Viking raids, the abbey was converted into a Benedictine monastery around 1200. Its buildings were restored in the 1900s, and in 1938 the Iona Community was established to revive its traditions of work, worship, and teaching. Highlights include the abbey church, striking high crosses, Columba’s shrine, and the site of the saint’s writing cell. Iona also holds Scotland’s finest collection of carved stones and crosses, now displayed in the Abbey Museum.

Today, more than a thousand years later, the abbey is one of the most well-preserved ecclesiastical buildings survived from the Middle Ages on the Scottish Isles.