The relics of antiquity still remaining consist of part of the cathedral church of St Mary, the nunnery, some small chapels, a building called the bishop’s house, and a number of ancient tombs or crosses. The cathedral, dating from the 13th century, is built in the usual form of a cross, and consists of nave, transept, and choir, with a sacristy on the north side and chapels on the south. A great portion of the walls and the central tower, about 75 feet in height, are still standing. It contains a number of old tombs. To the north are the remains of the conventual buildings which from a Norman arcade still standing appear to have been of an older date than the cathedral. The chapel of St Oran or Odhrain situated in the cemetery, on the south side of the monastery, dates probably from the 11th century, and its western doorway presents a Norman arch with the beak-head ornament. The cemetery, called in Gaelic Peilig Oiran, the burial-place of kings, and said to contain the remains of forty-eight Scottish, four Irish, and eight Danish or Norwegian monarchs, possesses a largo number of monumental stones. The remains of the nunnery exhibit traces of Norman architecture. Of the numerous crosses erected in the island the finest are Maclean’s cross and St Martin’s cross, which are still almost entire. Both are richly carved with Runic knots and various emblematic devices and fanciful scrolls.

The original form of the name Iona was Hy, Hii, or I, the Irish for island. By Adamnan in his Life of St Columba it is called loua insula, and the present name Iona originated in some transcriber mistaking the u in loua for an n. It also received the name of Hu-colum-kill (Icolmkill), that is, the island of Columba of the Cell, while by the Highlanders it has been known as Innis nan Druidhneah, the island of the Druids. It was in the year 563 that Columba, after leaving the shores of Ireland, entered the creek of Iona noW known as Port-a-churraich, the port of the coracle, and, having satisfied himself of the suitability of the island for his . purpose, founded there his famous monastery. The island was then inhabited by a Pictish population, but it has been disputed whether Columba obtained the grant of it from Conall, king of Dalriada, or from Brude, king of the Picts. Columba was buried in Iona, but between 802 and 807 his remains were transferred from it to the church of St Patrick in the county Down, Ireland. For a long time the monastery of Iona held the supremacy among all the monasteries and churches founded by Columba and his disciples. It was several times plundered and burned by the Norsemen, and its inmates on more than one occasion put to death. The Western Isles having come into the possession of Scotland in 1072, the monastery ot Iona was rebuilt and endowed by Queen Margaret. In 1092 they were, however, ceded to Magnus Barefoot of Norway, who after the renewal of the cession by Edgar in 1097 visited Iona and allowed the people to retain their possessions. The diocese of the Isles, founded about 838, of which Iona was the seat, was united by Magnus to the bishopric of Man, and made subject to the archbishopric of Drontheim in Norway. A new monastery as well as a nunnery was founded by the Benedictines in 1203, and the Benedictine order either absorbed or expelled the Celtic community. About 1507 the island again became the seat of the bishopric of the Isles. The monastery was demolished in accordance with the Act passed by the Convention of Estates in 1561. For many centuries it was much frequented on account of its facilities for learning, and, as may be supposed, became after the death of Columba a great resort of pilgrims, many of whom came in order to die on the island that their remains might be interred in its sacred soil; while the remains of persons illustrious in rank or in piety were brought to it for burial from all parts of northern Europe. The site of the old monastery was about a quarter of a mile north from the present ruins.

See, in addition to the article Columba, and the old authorities therein cited, Montalernbert’s Monks of the West, vol. iii.; The Cathedral or Abbey Church of Iona, by Bishop Ewing, 1866; Iona, by the Duke of Argyll, 1870; Skene’s Celtic Scotland, vol. ii, 1877; and Sculptured Monuments in Iona and the West Highlands, by James Drummond, 1881.