INCHCOLIE (of old, "St. Color's Inch," as in Shakespeare's Macbeth, act i. se. 2; in Lat. Aemonia, and Insula Sancti Columba), an islet, beautifully placed in the firth of Forth, within sight of Edinburgh. It is separated from the n. of Fife shore by a chan nel less than a mile broad, called "Mortimer's Deep." The isle is somewhat more than half a mile in length, and less than a third of a mile broad where widest.. It had a pop. in '71 of 6. It takes its name from St. Cohn or Columba (q.v.) of Iona, who is said to have dwelt here while laboring for the conversion of the northern Picts in the 6th cen tury. In the year 1123 king Alexander I. of Scotland, being shipwrecked upon it, found it inhabited by a solitary hermit, who lived on shell-tish and the milk of one cow, and served St. Columba in a little chapel or oratory. The king, in gratitude for his escape, founded on the island an abbey of Austin canons regular. Walter Bower, the enlarger and continuator of the Scot/citron/con of John of Fordun (q.v.), was abbot of
the monastery from 1418 till 1449. It was repeatedly sacked by the English during the 14th, 15th, and 16th centuries. The buildings, which have long been in ruins, show traces of Romanesque work (of about the middle of the 12th e.); but are chiefly first pointed (of the 13th and 14th centuries). The tower has some resemblance to the tower of Iona. The oldest edifice is a little vaulted oratory (20 ft. long by 7 broad), believed to represent the chapel in which king Alexander found the anchorite serving St. Columba in the 12th century. It is of the same type as the Irish oratory of Gallerns. It has been lately restored. There is also it chapter-house with a grained roof, and three elegant sedilia. The history of Inchcolm has been written with great detail by prof. sir James Y. Simpson, in the Proceedings of the Antiquaries of Scotland, vol. ii. pp. 489-528.