Isle of Iona, United Kingdom
Iona Abbey
Columba landed here from Ireland in 563 and the Christianity of Scotland went out from a Hebridean island a mile and a half wide.
Biblical significance
The abbey was the mother house of Celtic Christianity in Scotland and probably where the Book of Kells was begun. Sixty kings are said to be buried in the Reilig Odhráin, including Macbeth. The medieval buildings were restored from ruin in the twentieth century and are now home to the ecumenical Iona Community, whose worship shaped a generation of modern hymnody.
Scripture
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Best time to go
May to September; ferries and weather are unreliable in winter.
Visitor notes
Train or car to Oban, ferry to Mull, drive across, then the passenger ferry to Iona. Not a day trip done casually.
Coordinates
56.3350, -6.3928
On the map
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Getting to Iona Abbey
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