Today we continued our exploration of Scotland with a visit to the island of Iona in the Hebrides. Iona is home to the beautiful monastic center and Abbey which was once home to St. Columba and from which he spread early Celtic Christianity to Scotland and beyond. We were able to go ashore by Zodiac and walk through the small village and past the “Nunnery” on our way to the Abbey. The Nunnery is built from a beautiful pink granite which was probably rafted across the Sound of Iona from the nearby island of Mull. On the beach we also were able to see the wonderful Torridonian sandstone which is about one billion years old, but appears quite fresh as though it had only been deposited in the recent geological past.
In the afternoon we visited the nearby island of Staffa, which displays some of the finest examples of columnar basalt in the world. The basalt has been eroded on one corner to produce Fingal’s Cave about which Felix Mendelsohn composed the Hebrides Overture. We were able to go ashore on Staffa and see the basaltic column up close and also to walk along the beautiful grass covered hills to a large Atlantic puffin colony and to see the birds standing in front of their nesting burrows and flying out to sea to feed near the island. We also took Zodiac rides along the coast of the island and were able to get close views of the puffins and the eider ducks on the water.
In the evening we moved to the small town of Tobermoray on the nearby island of Mull where we could go ashore for a walk and perhaps make a visit to the famous Mishnish pub on the main street for a wee dram.
