The Isle of Mull and Oban, July 2018. Part One.

Tom and I decided to go to Scotland for a week for out summer holiday.  Oban is a town on the west coast of Scotland, off the coast of which is the largest of the inner Hebrides, the Isle of Mull.  We had been to Oban twice before, visiting friends who live there.  One of those times we went to Mull, but because of the ferry and bus times we didn't get much time there.  So this time we decided to spend more time.

First we drove to Oban and visited out friend Fee and her adorable little bairns (that's the Scottish word for kid/baby, but they also use it in Newcastle, so I am allowed to use it now without sounding pretentious). It was great seeing them.  We got to spend a night catching up, and then got to read the kids some bed time stories.  I would post some pictures, but posting pictures of someone else's kids online is kind fo creepy, so suffice it to say that they kids are SO CUTE!!!!!

The next morning we headed off to Mull.

Us being us.

Once we got off the ferry we went straight for Iona, a small island off the southwest coast of Mull. The last time we were on Mull we didn't have a car, so we weren't able to get out and see much of the island.  I had wanted to visit Iona for a few years, and so we made sure we went there.  

Iona was settled by Irish monks in 563, lead by St Columba. It became one of the most important sites of western Christianity and remains an important site today.

Iona can be seen on the bottom left of this map.  Our ferry landed at Craignure (centre right on the map). We stayed in Tobermory, at the top fo the map.

We took another ferry from Fionnphort to Iona, which was a very small one, though it could take a few cars.

Iona seen from the ferry. The restored abbey is on the right.

The Benedictine abbey was for monks, but religious women wanted to be part of the secluded community, so an Augustinian nunnery was founded later, in 1203.

The nunnery church.

Although it is very weathered, you can just barely make out the remains of a sheel-na-gig, a fertility symbol that was used in medieval Britain despite its pagan connotations.

To give you an idea of how weird a thing this is to find in a medieval nunnery here is what they usually looked like:

The nunnery church, with the remains of the chapter house in the foreground.

There is a small church, just to the south of the main abbey church, called St Oran's, in the middle of the graveyard.  It's a nice, simple church, which some amazing west highlands grave stones.

St Oran's Church.

West highland grave stones had a distinct style that is only found in the region.

This is the only bit of carved decoration in the church.

Then we got to the abbey itself.  It was AWESOME! In front of the abbey is a mound that is supposed to have been the place where St Columba used as a study, nestled in a writing hut over looking his abbey.

The abbey seen form the top fo the mound.

If you look at the largest doorway, the one on the right, just to the left of that is a much smaller door. This leads into St Columba's shrine.  Celtic churches tended to follow the method used by modern orthodox churches, and instead of placing shrines and chapels/altars dedicated to different saints within the main church, they would be built nearby as stand alone chapels.

The interior of the shrine.

Three standing stone crosses sit on front of the church.  This one is a replica of an earlier one, but next to it is a 1200 year old one (St Martin's Cross).  Unfortunately, I do not have nay good pictures of that.

The church became the focus of renewed religious devotion in the 19th century, and by the 1930s the ancient ruins had been mostly rebuilt, which is why such a complete structure is around today. 

The nave seen from the west end, with the font in the foreground.

The quire and chancel.

A chapel in the south east of the church.

Window in the chapter house.

Some grave slabs in the church.  The one on the right is particularly interesting. The upper portion shows a priest celebrating mass, but the slab has as its central image a sword.  The mass scene would normally denote that the person buried under this was a priest, but as priests were forbidden from carrying weapons (especially edged weapons), it seems unlikely; so it must be a knight/warrior.  However, west highland knights were unique in medieval Christian culture for having no religious imagery on their graves.  The juxtaposition of these images on the same slab is intriguing, and a bit confusing.

St Columba's Pillow.  This was found in a field in (I believe) the 19th century.  It may be one of the oldest pieces of the original church.

The rest of the site is scattered with chapels, a very good museum, and re-built cloisters.  The more modern stuff is a bit boring to me, so there aren't any pictures of it, really.  But here are some more random ones from the island.

The village.