Visiting Iona

The highlight of our holiday, and we were blessed with a beautiful day.  A tiny island off Mull, it is 1.5 miles wide and 3 miles long. St Columba came here in 563, bringing Christianity to Scotland.

Twenty six years since my last visit, when we sailed in and anchored in the Sound of Iona.  

This is John Smith's grave, former leader of the Labour Party.  He is buried in Reilig Odhrain, resting beside Scottish kings and clan chiefs. The quotation on the stone : "An honest man's the noblest work of God" from An Essay on Man by Alexander Pope.

We visited the Abbey and took part in one of the services.  We prayed about building community :-
O God,
Since there is no distinction of race or origin,
In You we are all one.
Empower us to break down
The barriers that still divide us,
So that we may work in harmony
With each other and with You.
(The Council of Churches of Great Britain and Ireland)

I also noted this quotation from the composer Felix Mendelssohn, who visited Iona in 1829.
"When in some future time I shall sit in a madly crowded assembly with music and dancing around me, and the wish arises to retire into the loneliest loneliness, I shall think of Iona."

They say Iona is a "thin" place, somehow a bit nearer to God.  I certainly felt that as we sat at the top of Dun I and admired the amazing view. 

I have added extra photos of the Abbey, the view from Dun I, the Cloisters, a wood carving, and St Martin's High Cross (over 1,200 years old).