This late 14th century church – named after St Columba – was later extended in the 15th and 16th century.
St Columba’s was the principal church on Lewis in medieval times. It was built by the MacLeods and dedicated to Colmcille. Its importance may have been connected to its position at the end of a narrow isthmus where important settlements were often sited. The name of this peninsular – ‘Eye’ – comes from the Old Norse word Eið meaning a narrow neck of land – or isthmus.
The church was rectangular in shape and would have had a burial ground on both north and south sides. Erosion of the coastline means that only the south burial ground remains.
Eaglais Chaluim Chille was used as the burial ground of the MacLeods of Lewis. There are two graveslabs in the church ruins – one of Roderick MacLeod 7th Chief of Lewis who died in 1498, and the other of his daughter Margaret Mackinnon who died in 1503. Roderick is shown as an armour-wearing warrior holding a sword and spear.
The church has a number of names – ‘Chapel of Ui’ or ‘Eye’; ‘St Columba’s Church, Aignish’; ‘Old Kirk of Eye’; ‘Aignish Church’ and in Gaelic ‘Eaglais na h-Aoidhe’ meaning Church of the Eye or Isthmus.
The museum houses 15 Pictish stones dating from the 8th century onwards. The main exhibit is an elaborate 8th or 9th century cross-slab. It is a Class 2 stone which means it is carved in relief with a mix of Pictish and Christian symbols. Many of the designs are similar to those used in Pictish metalwork. See museum website for visiting times
A Victorian museum in the grounds of Dunrobin Castle with a collection of more than 20 Pictish stones including class 1 symbol stones and class 2 cross-slabs. See Castle website for visiting times.
Craig Phadraig is a wooded hill on the edge of Inverness. Follow the path up the hill to discover the possible remains of King Brude’s fort.
Colmcille’s biographer Adomnán describes the saint visiting King Brude, the Pictish king, at his fort somewhere near the River Ness – possibly here at Craig Phadraig – in 565.
Colmcille came here to ensure that King Brude and the other Pictish kings would allow his monks to travel safely in the Western Isles and the Orkney Isles.
In Adomnán’s ‘Life of St Columba‘ there are several stories which recount Colmcille’s long journey to Craig Phadraig. The stories describe occasions when Colmcille performed miracles or confronted danger. These include an encounter with a monster in the River Ness. Some say this is the source of the Loch Ness monster legend.
“Once, on another occasion, when the blessed man stayed for some days in the land of the Picts, he had to cross the River Ness. When he reached its bank, he saw some of the local people burying a poor fellow. They said they had seen a water beast snatch him and maul him savagely as he was swimming not long before. Although some men had put out in a little boat to rescue him, they were too late, but, reaching out with hooks, they had hauled in his wretched corpse. The blessed man, having been told all this, astonished them by sending one of his companions to swim across the river and sail back to him in a dinghy that was on the further bank. At the command of the holy and praiseworthy man, Luigne moccu Min obeyed without hesitation. He took off his clothes except for a tunic and dived into the water. But the beast was lying low on the riverbed, its appetite not so much sated as whetted for prey. It could sense that the water above was stirred by the swimmer, and suddenly swam up to the surface, rushing open-mouthed with a great roar towards the man as he was swimming midstream. All the bystanders, both the heathen and the brethren, froze in terror, but the blessed man looking on raised his holy hand and made the sign of the cross in the air, and invoking the name of God, he commanded the fierce beast, saying:
‘Go no further. Do not touch the man. Go back at once.’
At the sound of the saint’s voice, the beast fled in terror so fast one might have thought it was pulled back with ropes. But it had got so close to Luigne swimming that there was no more than the length of a pole between man and beast. The brethren were amazed to see that the beast had gone and that their fellow-soldier Luigne returned to them untouched and safe in the dinghy, and they glorified God in the blessed man. Even the heathen natives who were present at that time were so moved by the greatness of the miracle they had witnessed that they too magnified the God of the Christians.”
Life of St Columba by Adomnán of Iona, Book II Story 27
Colmcille came to ask King Brude for protection for his monk Cormac Ui Liathain who was travelling in the Orkney Isles. The Pictish king in the Orkneys was subject to King Brude’s authority.
Colmcille was a powerful political figure. He also had connections with the King of the Britons, Riderch, who had his stronghold at Dumbarton (west of modern Glasgow) and who ruled a kingdom in the area around the River Clyde and beyond.
In his accounts, Adomnán describes Colmcille’s arrival at Brude’s Fort.
The fort at Craig Phadraig dates from c.4th century BC. In Colmcille’s time it was possibly the base of King Brude, king of the Picts.
You can still clearly see the outline of the fort’s inner walls. They are about 10 metres thick and enclose an area which is 75 metres long and 23 metres wide. The fort may have had four towers, one at each corner.
Craig Phadraig is a vitrified fort. When the fort was being constructed, no cement or lime was used between the stones in the walls. Instead a fire was lit and the walls were heated to such an extent that the rocks fused together.
The remains of an outer wall lie below the inner area and now look like a terrace of flatter land at the top of the hill.
Traces of a third wall have been found lower down the hill.
The Nigg Stone is one the finest carved Pictish stones. It was carved around 800AD – or perhaps earlier – and is covered in Christian symbols
From the details of this carved stone, it is clear that there were close links between monks living in Nigg and Portmahomack, and the monasteries in Iona and Northumbria.
The designs on this stone also appear on illuminated manuscripts made by monks living in those two places.
The patterns and symbols on the Nigg stone are very similar to the decorations found in the Book of Kells, the great illuminated book started by Colmcille’s monks in Iona and finished by them at Kells in Ireland.
There are also strong links with the St Andrews Sarcophagus now kept in St Andrew’s Cathedral museum, Fife.
Nigg is one of three standing stones on the east coast of Tarbat Ness. Other stones are further north in the village at Shandwick and at Hilton of Cadboll.
The Nigg stone is kept inside the parish church. It is thought that the stone might have been kept under cover in the past because it is in such good condition.
Yet parts of the stone are missing and the back is badly worn.
The stone has been dated to about 800 but may even be earlier. It is decorated with Christian symbols and would have been used during religious ceremonies – perhaps as a focus for preaching or mass would have been performed in front of it.
The top of the stone tells the story of the meeting of St Paul and St Anthony as told in Jerome’s Life of St Paul. Paul and Anthony are seen as the fathers of monasticism and have a particularly strong association with monks and the monastic life.
St Paul was a hermit monk. Every day a raven brought him a piece of bread to eat. On the day that St Anthony visited St Paul, the raven brought a whole loaf of bread for the two saints to share.
The stone depicts the moment when the raven arrives with the bread.
The men are kneeling and saying mass from the books that they are holding. The bread has a small piece missing as the raven places it on a chalice.
The carving is full of fine detail – the saints’ beards and hair, the bread with a corner missing, the palm trees at the edge of the scene.
The saints appear to be in profile but, when seen from a kneeling position, the other side of both saints’ faces is visible.
The lions – which the saints appear to lean on – represent the moment when St Anthony returns to visit St Paul and finds that he has died.
Two lions come out of the desert to help St Anthony to dig a grave for St Paul.
Snakes appear in many places on the stone. What might appear to be balls of twine are actually piles of intertwined snakes with one snake emerging from each ball – or boss – and interlacing with others.
Serpents are important Christian symbols. They are associated with evil from the story of Adam and Eve but they are also symbols of resurrection as, according to medieval legend, they spend three days underground and then re-emerge having shed their old skin.
They are also seen as wise – a serpent protects its head when under attack which is a metaphor for protecting ones mental processes.
Like other Pictish stones, the patterns are not symmetrical but repeat certain symbols – key patterns, spiral ornaments, bosses and interlace. These patterns are very similar in style and distribution to those found in the Book of Kells, started by the monks of Iona and completed by them after they abandoned the island and moved to Kells in Ireland.
The back of the stone is decorated with an eagle symbol and hunting scenes. The figures tell the story of how David killed a lion in order to save a lamb in his flock.
The cross-slab stone at Shandwick is covered with Christian symbols. This is an expression of Pictish Christianity rather than being a stone which combines pagan and religious designs.
There were probably a number of monastic settlements along this coast under control of the large monastery at nearby Portmahomack.
The stone is called Clach a’Charaidh in Gaelic meaning ‘stone of the grave plots’.
It lies slightly inland and has been preserved in a glass shelter. It is said to have been a landmark for sailors traveling along this coast.
The cross consists of circular bosses and is surrounded by interlocking spirals. Across the surface of the stone, intertwined snakes coil around each other.
These snakes had a religious significance – they are associated with evil and the temptation of Adam and Eve. In medieval times, snakes also signified rebirth and regeneration as they burrow underground and re-emerge having shed their old skin.
There are five panels of decoration on the back of the stone. The carvings include beasts, hunting scenes, men on horseback, fighting swordsmen and a hunter carrying a cross-bow.
Tarbat Ness is home to a number of standing stones which reflect the artistic skill and Christian faith of the Pictish people who carved them. The stones may have marked the boundary of the lands controlled by the monastery at Portmahomack.
The cross-slab at Hilton of Cadboll is a replica of the stone which originally stood here. It was carved in 2000. The land-facing back of the stone is a copy of the original stone which is now in the Museum of Scotland. However, the sea-facing front side was defaced in the 17th century so the replica is mostly based on Pictish designs.
The lower portion of the stone was re-discovered in 2001 and is now preserved in the Seaboard Memorial Hall in nearby Ballintore.
There are three standing stones on the east coast of Tarbat Ness – here at Hilton of Cadboll, in the adjoining village of Shandwick and further south at Nigg.
Artist, Barry Grove, created a design for this side of the stone based on the surviving fragment and typical Pictish designs and symbols.
The original stone once stood outside St Mary’s Chapel, a short distance from the sea. The chapel remains are now only visible as grass-covered mounds. The stone was broken a number of times. In 1676 the upper part of the front was defaced and re-used as a gravestone. The carvings were replaced with an inscription commemorating Alexander Duff and his three wives.
The central panel of the stone shows a hunting scene. A woman wearing an ornate broach rides on horseback. She is accompanied by two other riders and two people on foot playing trumpet. Three dogs are bounding beside them.
To the left of the woman are a comb and mirror symbol. Other typical Pictish symbols appear above – a crescent and v-rod, and at the top, a double disc and z-rod.
The lower part of the Hilton of Cadboll stone was lost and only rediscovered in 2001. Having been buried underground for so long, the details of the stone carving have not weathered or worn away.
The base is now in the local Seaboard Memorial Hall. Check the website for opening hours.
Between 1994 and 2007 archaeologists excavated an area around the church of St Colman at Portmahomack on the tip of Tarbat Ness. They discovered an extensive monastic settlement dating from the late 6th century.
The Tarbat Discovery Centre tells the story of this Christian settlement and its re-discovery by archaeologists.
Did Colmcille found a monastery here? Or does it date from a time before he arrived in Iona? If so, the Pictish people living here were already Christian. What is certain is that this monastery was of a significant size and scale – sometimes dubbed ‘the Iona of the east’.
Colmcille encountered Picts as he travelled through the Great Glen and up to the edge of modern Inverness. His biographer Adomnán records this journey and these meetings. The presence of a monastery at Portmahomack implies that the Picts in this area were already Christian yet Adomnán tells several stories of Colmcille converting Pictish people.
For centuries, the Picts had been an historical mystery. They were Celts – speaking a language very similar to Old Welsh – living in North Britain from the 3rd to the 9th century but few remains had been discovered. The excavation of the monastery revealed significant new information about their culture. One of the most notable records of Pictish civilisation are the carved stones found on and near Tarbat Ness.
The monks of Portmahomack had everything they needed to live and work – they had farm land, a mill, workshops for making sacred glassware and metalwork, and a church. About 150 people lived and worked here.
At the heart of the monastery was a workshop for the production of vellum – the writing surface used by monks for their illuminated manuscripts.
Vellum is made from animal skins. Excavations in Portmahomack have revealed frames used for stretching the vellum as it dries, and fireplaces where shells, bones and seaweed were burnt and made into solutions for smoothing the vellum.
Given that the monks were making their own vellum, it is probable that they may have also produced their own highly decorated gospel books similar to the Book of Kells.
Archaeologist Martin Carver has suggested that the four cross slabs found here were used to mark out the edges of the land controlled by the monastery at Portmahomack.
‘They were the most extraordinary artists. They could draw a wolf, a salmon, an eagle on a piece of stone with a single line and produce a beautiful naturalistic drawing. Nothing as good as this is found between Portmahomack and Rome. Even the Anglo-Saxons didn’t do stone-carving as well as the Picts did. Not until the post-Renaissance were people able to get across the character of animals just like that.’
Professor Martin Carver, University of York. (Lead archaeologist, Portmahomack excavations.)
The monastic settlement came to an end around 820AD when it appears to have been attacked, probably by Vikings.
Archaeologists have discovered burnt timbers dating from this time. They also discovered broken cross slabs which appear to have been destroyed at the same time.
Today all that remains of the Hermit’s Cell is a rough stone foundation of an oval hut which would have been made of timber or turf. An entrance faces southwest to capture the most daylight.
As he tells stories from Colmcille’s life, the saint’s biographer Adomnán describes the island of Iona and the life of the monks:
‘One day, when St Columba was living on Iona, he set off into the wilder parts of the island to find a place secluded from other people where he could pray alone.’
Monastic life has always focused on the need for deep reflection and contemplation, away from the distractions of everyday life. The monks and nuns of Iona would have had a number of smaller cells in the remote parts of the island which were used as retreats. Some monks sought retreat on other islands – Adomnán mentions the monk Cormac Ua Liatháin ‘a truly holy man who no fewer than three times laboured on the ocean in search of a place of retreat yet found none.’
Iona
This site is known as the Hermit’s Cell and is said by some to be the place where Colmcille prayed. For some pilgrims to Iona, the site represents the importance of solitary reflection and prayer, a tradition passed down by the saint to his followers.
As with many places which are linked to saints and holy figures, there is no historical evidence for this connection.
The Gaelic name for this small area is Cobhan Cùilteach, meaning ‘secluded hollow’, and the first English name attached to the stone circle itself was ‘Culdee’ cell – a corruption of the word ‘cùilteach’. The circle’s age and original purpose are uncertain, however, and it is rather large for a solitary monk’s prayer hut. Yet the hollow is undoubtedly a tranquil spot and it is easy to imagine Colmcille, or his successors, retreating here for a period of quiet contemplation.
Colmcille arrived in Iona from Argyll in 563 where he had been seeking permission to build a monastery on land belonging to the ruling clan – the Dál Riata.
From the Argyll coast, he would have presumably sailed along the south coast of Mull and landed on the south of Iona at the place now populalry called St Columba’s Bay.
There are two pebbly beaches here – Port a’ Churaich – or Harbour of the Coracle (a boat made of hide) – and Port an Fhir-bhrèige – separated by a spur of rock. Colmcille is said to have landed at Port a’ Churaich.
There is a story that when Colmcille left Ireland, he vowed to set up a monastery in a place from where he could not see his home country. According to tradition, when they arrived in Iona, Colmcille and his 12 companions who had set sail from Derry climbed the hill to the west of Port na Curaich to ensure that the saint could fulfill his promise. The hill is called ‘The Hill of the Back to Ireland’. Colmcille is recorded as returning to Ireland at least once – to attend the convention at Drum Ceat – just outside modern-day Limavady.
Historic accounts of this bay tell how there were two heaps of stones on the beach which represented the length of Colmcille’s boat. An early 18th century account reports this distance as ‘three score of foots’ or 60 feet/18.3 metres.
In 1963, a group of 13 men sailed from Derry to Iona in a boat similar to those used in Colmcille’s time, making the journey in 8 days and camping each night.
The pebbles from the beach at St Columba’s Bay have often been collected by pilgrims. The white limestone pebbles found in the southeast of the island are known as Iona Marble. In the 18th and 19th centuries tourists bought them from local children as a souvenir.
Some pilgrims visiting the island today pick up two stones from the beach. One is thrown back into the sea as a symbol of something in their life that they would like to leave behind. The other is taken home as a sign of a new commitment they have made.
Up behind Port an Fhir-bhreige there are about 50 cairns varying in size. There are various ideas about their origins – that they are burial cairns, which is unlikely; that they were built by monks as a penance; or that they were created as medieval pilgrims visited the site.
The centre of the island is fertile grazing ground called The Machair – machair meaning a plain or level field.
Continue walking south, with the Sound of Iona on your left. The road turns right to lead west across the island. On the left, just before the gate onto the grass above the seashore, is a smooth green hillock.
This small hill has two names: Sìthean or the Fairy Mound where, according to local legend, the music of the fairy folk could entice unwary mortals inside the hill; and Cnoc nan Aingeal or Hill of the Angels where, according to Adomnán, Colmcille was seen meeting with angels.
“How a great number of holy angels were seen, coming down from heaven to confer with St Columba.
Likewise, on another occasion, when St Columba was living in Iona, he addressed the assembled brethren, making his point with great emphasis, saying:
‘Today I shall go to the machair on the west coast of our island, and I wish to go alone. No one is to follow me therefore.’
They obeyed and he set out alone as he desired. But one of the brethren, who was an artful scout, took a different route and his himself on top of a little hill that overlooks the machair, for he was eager to find out why the saint had gone out alone. From his vantage point, he could see St Columba standing on a knoll among the fields and praying with his arms spread out towards heaven and his eyes gazing upwards…
For holy angels, the citizens of the heavenly kingdom, were flying down with amazing speed, dressed in white robes, and began to gather around the holy man as he prayed. After they had conversed a little with St Columba, the heavenly crowd – as though they could feel that they were being spied on – quickly returned to the heights of heaven…
Hence today the knoll where St Columba conferred with angels affirms by its very name what took place there, for it is called Cnoc nan Aingel, that is, the angels’ knoll.”
Life of St Columba by Adomnán of Iona, Book III Story 16
The Machair, meaning flat sandy grassland, now provides good grazing for the local farmers. But it was once dug and sown with crops, from the time of the early monastery onwards; the long rigmarks are still clear, especially in low sunlight. Adomnán called this area ‘the little western plain’ and records that Colmcille was brought here, to bless the brothers at work, shortly before his death.
