We sailed from the picturesque pastel painted town of Tobermory to Craignure. There we boarded a coach for the one-hour drive across the Island of Mull to Iona. We were fortunate, as we had one of the most knowledgeable and entertaining bus drivers one could have hoped for. Iona is justifiably famous for almost 1,500 years because the famous prince of the O’Neill family, Colum Cille, or as he is known in Latin, Columba, led his twelve disciples to Iona. There Columba founded the first Christian monastery in Britain in 563. He negotiated the purchase of the island from the Pictish king. Having established his monastery, he and his missionaries began to evangelize the neighboring Picts. The community’s reputation for good works and piety grew, and they succeeded in making converts.
After lunch at the Martyrs’ Cafe, we visited the picturesque Duart Castle, the ancestral home of the MacLean clan. It was the center of the MacLean resistance against the English and their support of the Jacobites. The English destroyed the castle, but it was completely restored by Sir Fitzroy MacLean in 1912. Today it sits prominently on a headland overlooking Loch Linnhe.
