Site: St Columba's Shrine, Iona

Name:St Columba's Shrine, Iona CISP No:IONAS
Place:Iona (I Chaluim Chille) Grid Ref:NM 286 245 (GB)   Map
Parish:Kilfinichen & Kilvickeon Stones:3
County:Argyll , Scotland Saint(s):Colum Cille ; Columba
Site Type:ecclesiastical

Site Notes

RCAHMS/1982, 41: `Some 3m NW of the NW angle of the nave [of the Abbey]...and 4.9m E of St John's Cross, there is a small chapel, now rebuilt and called `St Columba's Shrine' which appears to belong to [the Early Christian] period.'

The photograph on RCAHMS/1982, 43, shows recumbent cross-slabs in situ.

RCAHMS/1982, 42: `The plan of this diminutive building, with its projecting antae and a length to breadth proportion of almost exactly three to two, closely resembles those of some of the earliest Irish stone churches. The dating of these structures is uncertain, and this example, with its sandstone dressings, is unlikely to be earlier than the 9th or 10th century'. The modern name is a misnomer, but derives from a much older tradition (recorded in the late 17th century) that this is Columba's tomb: `this tradition merits serious consideration...The building has also been identified, probably correctly, with the `small church of Columcille' mentioned in a saga account of the Hebridean expedition of the Norwegian king, Magnus Barelegs, in 1098'.

References

Stones