Hotels near Iona Abbey

Iona has been at the heart of Scotland's religious life since St Columba landed here from Ireland in AD563 and founded a monastery that was to become one of the most important in Europe. A later abbot, Adomnán of Iona, was almost equally venerated. Viking raiders attacked in 795, 802, 806 and 825. During the second raid they burned down the original wooden Columban monastery, located a little to the north of today's abbey, and killed most of the monks. From 818 a replacement monastery was built, this time in stone, on the site of today's abbey. But this in turn was badly damaged during the Viking raid of 825, and in 849 the monastery's surviving relics and valuables were dispersed for safety to Dunkeld Cathedral in Perthshire and to Kells in Ireland.

Today the Iona Community works on the island and far beyond it for social and political change. It runs three residential centres on Iona, one of which is at the Abbey itself. This means that while it attracts and caters for a huge number of visitors, the Abbey is also a working religious community. The doors discreetly marked as only for residents' use remind you of this.

The visitor approaching Iona Abbey from the ferry comes first to the Relig Odhráin, St Oran's Chapel. Beyond are the grounds of the abbey, complete with the Historic Scotland reception kiosk. Having made your way past the standing crosses to the abbey complex itself, perhaps the most striking element is the cloister, simply because it is a structure so rarely seen, in complete form at least, elsewhere in Scotland. This has been stunningly restored, complete with wonderful modern carvings and, at its centre, the large bronze sculpture The Descent of the Spirit by Lithuanian Sculptor Jacques Lipchitz.

Leading off the east side of the cloister is the restored chapter house, while in the north west corner you find the modern abbey shop. Here, below the upper floors in use by the Iona Community, you really get a feeling of being part of a living building. To the south of the cloister is the abbey church. This, too, is a beautiful and contemplative space, and again you get a sense of life so often absent from old buildings. Especially striking are the marble effigies of the 8th Duke of Argyll and his wife: the man whose vision restored Iona Abbey.

It's unnecessary to say that no visit to Iona is complete without a tour of the abbey: because that is what just about every visitor does. But make sure you don't miss the easy-to-overlook Infirmary Museum and the Michael Chapel, or St Oran's Chapel and Relig Odhráin. And remember that having seen the wonders of the abbey there is the rest of this beautiful island to explore as well.