In the strait which separates Iona from Mull, there is sufficient depth of water for large vessels, and ships of war have sometimes passed it ; but the navigation is ren dered very dangerous From the sunken rocks. The island has no proper harbour; however, there is good anchorage, in a small sandy bay, about two cables length from the shore. There is a landing place for boats on the south-west part, but it is hazardous, unless in calm weather. This is a creek called Port-na-curach, or the Harbour of the Boat, by way of distinction, lined by perpendicular rocks of ser pentine marble ; and here the celebrated St. Columba is said to have landed, when he arrived from Ireland. Cu rach signifies a coracle, or wicker boat, covered with hides, such as was common to the British islanders, and is even now to be seen on some of the rivers in Wales. Consider ing the nature of the vessels so long employed, the same difficulties of approaching the shores of Iona were not felt as at the present day. Sheltered by the island of Mull, the climate here is unusually mild. Snow seldom falls, and is speedily dissolved ; nor does it often freeze ; but, on the whole, the mildness of the climate is more evident in win ter than in summer, when the heat is pi oportionally less . than on the main land.
The population of the island seems nearly the same as in the year 1688, when Mr Sacheverell, governor of Man, during his excursion hither, was told it amounted to about 80 families. In 1782, the inhabitants were 277 ; in 1791, they were 325 ; and in 1808, they had increased to 386. They are chiefly contained in a small mean village near the bays of Martyrs, where, it is said, the illustrious dead were anciently landed for interment in this sanctified ground. Mr Sacheverell describes them as a harmless and ignorant people, but " more susceptible of religion and politure than the neighbouring islands." A century later, they enjoy ed the same character, but all were deeply tine tut ed by superstitions. They were famous for the second sight ; foil ul visions, seen either by themselves or others; and entertained many wild and romantic notions concern ing religion and invisible things. Though entirely ignorant of popery, their sentiments and practices exhibited many vestiges of it. Every one had the traditional history of Columba, together with numberless legends, which had been handed down front remote antiquity. Being visited only once in three or four months by the clergyman within whose parish the island is situated, they repair on the Sab bath to their devotions in the ruinous abbey, to St. Colum ba's tomb, and the chapels of the different saints. It was lately their custom to carry the body of a person deceased round the whole ancient buildings on its way to interment, and it required the strenuous exertions of their pastor to effect the suppression of this ceremony.
Numerous antiquities, of the most interesting kind to Scotish history, are seen in Iona, which has, perhaps, been the spot most celebrated by surrounding nations of any within the limits of the British isles. St. Columba, a near relation of the kings of Ireland, and also of Canal, the fifth king of Argyle, having received a gift of the island from the latter, arrived here from Ireland, in the year 571, with twelve of his disciples, whose names are still preserved. They laboured during two years, erecting huts and a church of very slight materials. But as the fame of Co lumba increased, the buildings were augmented ; the church became more spacious ; and a monastery, together with various chapels and a nunnery, were successively built. The remains of these edifices, almost all construct ed of fine sienite, together with crosses and sepulchral monuments, arc the antiquities now extant. The exact date of none of the former is known, but the church is said to have been rebuilt by Queen Margaret towards the latter end of the eleventh century. This, though inferior to many other structures, was a magnificent edifice for that period. No polished work is employed ; but the stone, which is compared to the finest used by the ancients, has been brought to a plain surface. Many blocks, five or six feet long, are seen in the walls, and also in the rubbish. Much architectural ornament is displayed in the arches mid columns on a grey ft ce-stone, which has been brought from the island of Al ; and among the sculptures, there is an angel with a pair of scales, weighing souls, one being kept down by the devil with his paw. The church is built in the form of a cross ; the front measuring 116 feet in length, 23 in breadth, and the transept 70 feet by 18. Over the centre there is a handsome squat e tower, between 70 and 80 feet 'light. with a large circular window occupied by lozenges of free stone ; a contrivance of the early ages to admit the light, while the winds and rain were excluded. Within the choir are several pillars sculptured with pas sages from Scripture history, and also the remains of an altar. ‘which Mr Sacheverell declares was one of the finest pieces of white marble he ever saw. It was about six feet long and four broad, curiously veined and polished, and all entire except one corner. Only a small portion was left in the time of Mr Pennant, and it has undergone still fa• ther dilapidation, as the possessors of a fragment anticipate good fortune from it, and also believe that it is a preserva tive from shipwreck. Not far from the monastery are the
remains of a nunnery, now in a very ruinous condition ; and, on the outside of the church, towards the west, is an enclosure, with a monument sunk among ruins, said to be the tomb of Columba. In the vicinity there is a chapel dedi cated to St. Oran, reputed a disciple of that saint, equally ruinous as the rest, but containing numerous tomb-stones; and there is besides, a cemetery of greater celebrity, wherein many crowned heads were interred. The incredu lous antiquary might doubt why so remote an islet should be selected for royal sepulture, and whether there are suf. ficient grounds in history to authenticate the fact. Bul Iona was viewed as consecrated ground ; and it may be considered as one vast cemetery, to which the illustrious characters of ancient times were carried for inhumation by their own desire, or the pious wish of surviving rela tives. Egfrid, king of Northumberland, having penetrat ed with an army to the Pictish territories of Scotland, was defeated and slain in 684, on which occasion Adamnan, the successor of Columba, opened the sacred soil of the island to inter his hotly. Here, it is said by the older historians, there were interred forty-eight kings of Scotland, four of Ireland, eight Norwegian monarchs, and one king of France. Monro, dean of the isles, visited the Hebrides, between 1540 and 1549, when he describes 44 a sanctuary, or church-yard, with three tombs like small chapels. In the gable of each was a broad grey stone, one inscribed, in Latin letters, with tumulus regum Scotia, another with tumulus regum Hibernia, and the third with tumulus region Norwegia." It appears, from history, that, independent of earlier monarchs, the kings of Scotland, from Kenneth III. who died in 994, down to Edgar, who died in 1098, were interred in Icohnkill, after which Dunfermline became the place of royal sepulture. But the time when this practice commenced has not been recorded. Fordun relates, that Aldan, who died about the year 663, in Kintyre, was buried at Kilcheran, where none of his predecessors had been in terred. No inscription of their names, at least known to be such, was extant ; and the general title of the tombs of the kings, mentioned by Monro, seems to have been de stroyed long ago. Black marble or basaltic effigies and re liefs cover some of the tombs ; several have Latin inscrip tions, and others appear in Gaelic, which fashion conti nued down to the seventeenth century ; and it is said, a character somewhat resembling Hebrew, but which has never yet been deciphered, is engraven on a few. Most of the inscriptions being obscured by weeds and rubbish, would merit farther investigation. Dr Sachpverell was informed by John Frazer, dean of the isles, that his father, who held the same dignity, collected about 300 inscrip tions, which he gave to the earl of Argyle. All the great families of the neighbourhood were buried here—a cus tom still partly preserved ; and the males and females were interred, until recently, in different places. The latter were deposited in the chapel of a nunnery, w hich has been a handsome building, and still contains inscriptions and sculptures on the tombs of the prim esses. A causeway, about 300 paces in length, 15 feet broad, and consisting entirely of large blocks of the same red marble employed in the architecture of the cathedral, very artifically united, runs from the abbey to this edifice, which was also dedi tatcd to St Oran. Its antiquity is unknown. Some au thors have conceived it antecedent to the monastery, which is exceedingly improbable. Yet it was not uncommon, amidst the austerities of the times, for the saints, who es tablished themselves among the western islands, to issue positive prohibitions against the approach of all females whatever. Whence it might be inferred that Columba found the nunnery here. Others affirm, that the nuns having originally resided on a neighbouring islet, yet call ed the Isle of Nuns, he permitted their transference to Iona. They were of the Augustine order ; and Keith affirms, that they lived together in community long after the suppression of the religious houses, at the date of the Reformation, but in what place, we have not been able to learn. It is said, that above 100 crosses formerly stood on the island : but of that number only three remain ; the others, together with all the edifices venerated by the in habitants, having been demolished by a decree of the synod of Argyle, about the year 1559 or 1560. Adamnan speaks or crosses standing halt' way between the granary and the monastery, afterwards fixed on a pedestal, and still to be seen by the side of the road in his time, which existed in the days of St. Columba. Exactly in the same spot, one is yet extant, eight feet high. Another near it is fourteen feet high; and the third, which is ten feet fourteen inches high, and only three inches thick, is sculptured with va rious figures. Many other monuments of superstitious de votion remained at the date of the Reformation, some of so remarkable a kind, that posterity is left to conjecture their origin and purposes. Since this island came into the pos session of the family of Argyle, considerable attention has been paid to the preservation of its antiquities.