Iona Island and Abbey (2024)

Excavation at Iona Abbey, 1976

Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, 1979

IONA ABBEY & CLAN DONALD 1200-1500, 2012

https://www.ionaabbeyandclandonald.com/ This book will show that the medieval Iona Abbey and Cathedral of the Isles, as you see them today (restored in the 20th century) are the legacy of the 15th century Clan Donald Lords of The Isles and their Clan Donald Abbots and Bishops.  But a major problem with the how this historic site is currently interpreted is a perception that none of it, or very little, has anything to do with Clan Donald. A misplaced trust in treating with England started the great Royal Clan Donald's downfall. Divisions within its leadership resulted and the weakened Lordship of the Isles lost it all in 1493. Including its ecclesiastical history which was also “Reformed" and the much transformed country forgot Clan Donald was the whole reason for the very existence of medieval Iona Abbey and its Cathedral of the Isles. There is in fact a flawed historical account of the Clan Donald's essential structural role in the medieval abbey's existence right from its inception in early 13th century caused by the 300 year later destruction of not only the Abbey's infrastructure but the whole institutionalised national machinery which sustained it. This sudden, violent end of the era resulted in a partial ecclesiastical "memory loss". The Earls of Argyll at that time were Scotland's political masters, the instigators and benefactors of the tumultuous upheavals with massive shifts in the macroeconomic environment. Their descendant Earls and Dukes have not only enjoyed the "fruits" but also the resulting "Reformation" of the Abbey's history in their favour. When it comes to who is most associated with “Iona Abbey”, the lion’s share of attention is focused on the internationally famous, iconic St Columba, the early Christian era and Iona’s Hiberno-Scottish mission, and then fast-forwards to the recency of the regional celebrity of the “extraordinary” Renaissance Man, the 8th Duke of Argyll with the large marble effigies of himself and third wife Ina, so dominant in the cathedral. The 8th Duke was proud of ‘owning’ Iona not because of the medieval Abbey, but because of his love for the island’s nature and particularly its association with one man, St Columba. He gives the distinct impression that he would have been quite satisfied if the medieval abbey had never existed. NB: The established Church of Scotland (orientation Calvinist) traces its origins beyond the Reformation and sees itself in continuity with the church established by St. Ninian, St. Columba, St. Kentigern and other Celtic saints. [1] To the 8th Duke, the Catholic-Benedictine-Clan Donald phase of 1200-1500 on Iona is just an inconvenient interlude between the Paruchia Colum Cille and the Protestant Reformation. To him, and others, this period, albeit just a short 300 years, inconveniently interferes with and interrupts the "continuity" just mentioned {"St Columba teaching the grand system of Calvanistic theology!"; as incredulously said 1934} and is something best denigrated and relegated to unworthiness and insignificance - trivialised. All of the above negativities coalesce, with the more recent colouring the distant past, and leaves the Clan Donald Lords of the Isles forfeit of any due recognition, outside of the minimalist role of being called (mere) benefactors or patrons. This is a gross understatement of their fundamental contribution to this infrastructure, the resulting economics of the region and the truly extraordinary three centuries long existence of the late medieval Iona Abbey and its Cathedral of the Isles which is entirely due to this one "Royal" family. The MacDonald's financing and building is paramount in providing the sole witness to Iona's extant architecture...... “probably the completest and most interesting group of ancient ecclesiastical structures in Scotland"; - 1897. [2] Yet, in many respects the MacDonalds are sidelined, what's more anonymously [with no individual monument attributions] to St Oran’s Chapel. It is all substantively misleading in terms of a proper interpretation of the history of the site’s extant architecture. This book will put an end to the clouding of facts which :- (A) Gives no or very little credit to the early Clan Donald for the very existence and continued growth, enhancement and maintenance of the medieval Abbey for three centuries and raising of the Cathedral of the Isles; (B) Portrays little of the responsibility for the then Earls of Argyll playing a significant, leading part in its 16th and 17th centuries destruction and exactly how the abbey’s wealth and property “came into the hands of” their family; (C) However sees the Argyll Earls/Dukes enjoying a disproportionate amount of the accolades for “returning” and “restoring” the Abbey, when very little of it or the exact opposite is the truth. [3] This throws a deep and long slanted shadow over the whole medieval history. https://www.ionaabbeyandclandonald.com/ ________________________________ [1] However, see this opinion :- The Topographical Statistical and Historical Gazetteer of Scotland, Volume 2; p.47 (col. 2). 1854. "The Culdees, ‘servants of God,’ as the fraternity of Iona and the communities connected with them were called, seem to have had no connexion whatever with the corrupt, pompous, usurping, and multitudinous sect which, from an early period in the 4th century, claimed the alliance of the state, arrogated to itself the title of ‘the Catholic church,’ and was already far advanced, all indeed but completely matured, in the foul innovations of Romanism. ......... An Episcopalian, a Presbyterian, and an Independent, if keener to gather laurels for his party than to obtain an impartial view of facts, will each, and not without plausibility, but under decided mistake, claim the Culdees, as brethren in creed.” [2] MacGibbon, David & Ross, Thomas; “The Ecclesiastical Architecture of Scotland, VOL III; pps 48, 49. ; 1897. NB: contrast this praise to the 8th Duke’s condemnation: “all these buildings before us are the monuments of the dull and often the corrupt monotony of medieval Romanism” - this is about what the building's represented but he also never said anything in praise of the structures themselves. Nothing remained of the early Christian monastery. The only monument from that period that endured and was left standing was St Martin’s 8th century cross. Only the very foundations of a 9th century “shrine” later built for St Columba remained. The three ancient tombs of the kings are totally gone and the early Christian smaller gravestones, cross fragments would also have all but disappeared, stolen or mainly buried from view and memory without the central gravitas, attraction and therefore protection of what is currently, in the main, an early Clan Donald medieval site in terms of surviving architecture and a majority of the medieval monuments (Clan Donald’s alone, plus the vassal clans of its Lordship). [3] 1979 : (NY Times, Apr 2001.) “Heavy estate taxes led the 12th Duke of Argyll to sell the island of Iona. The Hugh Fraser Foundation buys Iona for the nation; ownership transferred to the National Trust for Scotland.”

A NEW JERUSALEM ‘AT THE ENDS OF THE EARTH’: INTERPRETING CHARLES THOMAS’S EXCAVATIONS AT IONA ABBEY

Antiquaries Journal 100, 2020

Iona was a major European intellectual and artistic centre during the seventh to ninth centuries,with outstanding illustrated manuscripts, sculpture and religious writings produced there, despite its apparently peripheral location ‘at the ends of the earth’. Recent theological discourse has emphasised the leading role of Iona, and particularly its ninth abbot, Adomnán, in developing the metaphor of the earthly monastery as a mirror of heavenly Jerusalem, allowing us to suggest a new appreciation of the innovative monastic layout at Iona and its influence on other monasteries in northern Britain. The authors contend that the unique paved roadway and the schematic layout of the early church, shrine chapel and free-standing crosses were intended to evoke Jerusalem, and that the journey to the sacred heart of the site mirrored a pilgrim’s journey to the tomb of Christ. The key to this transformative understanding is Charles Thomas’s 1956–63 campaign of excavations on Iona, which this article is publishing for the first time. These excavations were influential in the history of early Christian archaeology in Britain as they helped to form many of Thomas’s ideas, later expressed in a series of influential books. They also revealed important new information on the layout and function of the monastic complex, and produced some unique metalwork and glass artefacts that considerably expand our knowledge of activities on the site. This article collates this new information with a re-assessment of the evidence from a large series of other excavations on Iona, and relates the results to recent explorations at other Insular monastic sites. Keywords: early monasticism; coenobitic monastery; Christianity; archaeology; ecclesiastical studies; Charles Thomas

Furnishing an Early Medieval Monastery: New Evidence from Iona

Medieval Archaeology, 2019

THIS PAPER DESCRIBES and discusses the significance of a number of metalwork and glass finds from the important early medieval monastery on the island of Iona, Argyll and Bute, Scotland. The finds mainly come from previously unpublished excavations, especially those by Charles Thomas from 1956–63. They include unique items such as an 8th-century lion figurine, and a 12th-century human head, both in copper alloy. These finds attest for the first time to the production of complex ecclesiastical metalwork such as reliquaries at Iona, and are some of the few such items to be recovered from excavated contexts. Fragments of early medieval window glass demonstrate that the buildings of the early monastery were more sophisticated than previously believed, and moulds and a reticella rod indicate decorative glass-working. A number of copper-alloy pins, strap-fittings and other decorative pieces of 9th- and 10th-century date show significant Norse-period occupation, and probably continuing metalworking traditions throughout the early medieval period. Taken together, these new finds begin to reveal that Iona was furnished with richly decorated shrines and reliquaries similar in sophistication to the illustrated manuscripts and sculptured monuments known to have been produced in the monastery.

2017. The Post-medieval Churches of Clonakilty. In C. O' Leary (ed.) Clonakilty Archaeological and Historical Society Journal I.

For whom the bell tolls: the monastic site at Clonfad 3, Co. Westmeath

Creative Minds, 2010

'The Romanesque Cloister in England', in Journal of the British Archaeological Association, 168 (2015)

Not a single English Romanesque great cloister arcade survives in-situ. Despite this, the existence of a number of 11th- and 12th-century rear walls, and the discovery of quantities of stonework likely to have originated in cloister arcades, make it possible to recover something of the likely appearance and character of the cloister in Anglo-Norman England. The following paper considers that evidence, and assesses how our understanding of the underlying topography and archaeology of Anglo-Norman cloisters might enable us to reconstruct their lost walks. It concludes with an appraisal of the chronology of English cloister building.

THE IDENTIFICATION OF EARLY MEDIEVAL MONASTIC ESTATES IN NORTHUMBRIA

A review of evidence, in five case studies, for the geography and organisation of early monastic estates in Northumbria.

The early phase of cloister architecture in Central Europe

Monastic Life, Art, and Technology in the 11th-16th Centuries (Annales Universitatis Apulensis. Series Historica, Special Issue), 2015

Recent excavations at Dunfermline Abbey, Fife

Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, 1982