SAIL TO Iona – Scotland’s
Sacred Isle

Just a short distance from Mull lies Iona, one of Scotland’s most peaceful and spiritually rich islands. Step ashore and you’ll feel a stillness shaped by centuries of faith, craftsmanship and quiet beauty.

Iona’s story begins with St Columba, who arrived here from Ireland in AD 563 and founded a monastery that became a beacon of Christianity across northern Europe. Despite Viking raids and turbulent centuries, worship continued — and by around 1200 the sons of Somerled, “King of the Isles,” built the Benedictine Abbey that still stands today.

It’s believed that the world-famous Book of Kells was created here, alongside other treasures of early medieval art. Today, the Abbey Museum houses Scotland’s finest collection of carved stones and high crosses — each one a link to Iona’s extraordinary past.

In 1938 the Iona Community was formed, reviving the abbey’s long tradition of shared work, worship and learning.

What WE CAN See and Do on Iona

• walk its lanes, beaches and meadows, where history and landscape merge in quiet harmony.

• See the four great high crosses, standing as symbols of faith and craftsmanship through the ages.

• Explore Iona Abbey, restored to life as an active place of worship, with architecture spanning the 13th to 16th centuries.

• Climb Tòrr an Aba, where St Columba is said to have written and prayed overlooking the sea.

• Visit St Oran’s Chapel and Reilig Odhráin, the ancient burial ground said to hold the graves of early Scottish kings.

• Find traces of Columba’s original monastery, marked by the vallum — a simple earthwork boundary that still survives.

• Walk the Street of the Dead, flanked by medieval crosses, leading pilgrims toward the abbey for over 1,000 years.

• Step into the Augustinian Nunnery, the most complete of its kind in Scotland, peaceful and ivy-clad.