Ordnance gazetteer of Scotland > Volume 4

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tells us that the island of Hii ' had been by the dona-
tion of the Piets who inhabit these districts of Britain
given over long before to Scottish monks, from whose
preaching the}- had received the faith of Christ,' and
possibly the donation may have been to the earlier
settlement to which Columba succeeded. However
that may be, and whether he received the right from
the Piets or from the Dalriads, his claim to the island
seems to have been fully recognised and admitted. His
landing took place probably on the 12 May 503, and tra-
ditionally at the bay now known as Port-a-ehurakh, and
he must at once have proceeded to found the monastery
and establish the ' church which not only embraced
within its fold the whole of Scotland N of the Firths of
Forth and Clyde, and was for a century and a half the
national church of Scotland, but was destined to give
to the Angles of Northunibria the same form of
Christianity for a period of thirty years. ' The build-
ings that now remain are of course of much later date
than Columba's time. Dr Skene, who has carefully
and patiently investigated the matter, is indeed quite
positive that the first erections were on a site about J
mile to the N of the present cathedral, between Dun-i
on the W, and the old burying-ground called C'ladh-an-
diseart on the E. From the lives of St Columba written
by Cummin (the white abbot, 657-669) and Adamnan
(abbot 679-704), the original structures were (1) a
monastery with a small court, on one side of which was
the church, with a small side chamber, on a second side
the guest chamber, on the third a refectory, and on the
fourth dwellings of the monks ; a little way off on the
highest part of the ground (2) the cell of St Columba,
where he sat and read or wrote during the day, and
slept at night on the bare ground with a stone for his
pillow ; (3) various subsidiary buildings, including a
kiln, a mill, a barn, and a cowhouse, which latter was,
however, outside the rampart. Not far off was a
sequestered hollow (identified by Dr Skene with Cabhan
cuildcach), to which Columba retired when be wished
to pray in solitude. The whole was bounded by a
vallum or rampart, the course of which may still be
traced. The site of the monastery has already been
noted, and St Columba's cell seems to have been within
the rampart immediately to the E of the mound known
as Cnoc-na-bristeadh clock, close to the house at present
called Clachauach. The kiln was probably about 100
yards Nff of Torr-abb, and the mill was in the same
neighbourhood. It has left its traces in the small
stream to the N of the present cathedral ruins which
bears the name of Strutli-a-mhuilinn or the mill stream.
Remains of old causeways may be traced from the land-
ing places of Port-na-martir, Port Ronan, and Port-na-
muintir. All the early buildings, except the kiln, were
of wood, the guest chamber was wattled, the church
was of oak, and the cell of Columba was made of planks.
The monks were divided into three classes, the older
brethren, who devoted themselves to the religious ser-
vices of the church, and to reading and transcribing the
Scriptures ; second, the younger and stronger working
brothers, who devoted themselves to agriculture and the
service of the monastery ; and third, the alumni or
youth under instruction. The}' took a solemn vow at
the altar, were tonsured from ear to ear, and wore
white robes with over bodies and hoods of the natural
colour of the wool.
After he had set matters in order, the Saint seems to
have made frequent journeys to the mainland, probably
for missionary purposes, and in 565 he even made his
way across Drumalban, and along the Great Glen to the
court of the Pictish King Brude, which was somewhere
in the neighbourhood of Inverness. Here, after certain
miraculous occurrences, he converted Brude, and thus
prepared the way for the establishment of missions all
through the territories of the Piets, and for the more
rapid conversion of the whole Pictish nation. In 574,
on the death of King Conall, he consecrated his suc-
cessor Aidan, and in the following year, at the synod of
Druniceatt, he was able to obtain concessions which
practically established Dalriada as a kingdom indepen-
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dent of the Irish Ard-ri. The death of Brudo in 584
deprived Columba of his powerful friend and patron,
but it opened up new fields of labour. Brude's suc-
cessor was Gartnaidh, a southern Pict, whose seat was
at Abernethy on the Tay, and though the southern
Piets had been converted by Ninian in the beginning of
the 6th century, they had lapsed, until the labours of
Columba restored them again to the true faith. Adam-
nan tells us that four years before his death he had a
vision that angels had been sent to bear his soul o\\ high,
but they were stayed by the prayers of his churches.
When the four years were nearly finished he set every-
thing in order for his departure. The day before ' he
ascended the hill that overlooketh the monastery, and
stood for some little time on its summit, and as he
stood there with both hands uplifted, he blessed his
monastery, saying : ' ' Small and mean though this
place is, yet it shall be held in great and unusual
honour, not only by Scotic kings and people, but also
by the rulers of foreign and barbarous nations, and by
their subjects ; the saints also, even of other churches,
shall regard it with no common reverence.'" On the
following day at nocturnal vigils he went into the
church and knelt down in prayer beside the altar, and
' his attendant Diormit, who more slowly followed him,
saw from a distance that the whole interior of the
church was filled with a heavenly light in the direction
of the saint,' which, as he drew near, quickly dis-
appeared. ' Feeling his way in the darkness, as the
brethren had not yet brought in the lights, he found
the saint lying before the altar,' and all the monks
coming in, Columba moved his hand to give them his
benediction, and so breathed his last on the 9 June 597,
while ' the whole church resounded with loud lamenta-
tions of grief. ' His body, ' wrapped in a clean shroud
of fine linen, and, being placed in the coffin prepared
for it, was buried with all due veneration,' with no one
present but his faithful mouks, for all the three days
and nights of his obsequies there was such a storm that
no one could cross the sound.
After Columba's death, the monastery continued its
career, but under harassing conditions, for under the
abbot second in succession to the founder began that
controversy concerning Easter, which was destined to
work such harm to the Columban Church. In this early
stage, however, the interference was from without, and
did not as yet disturb the harmony of the brethren,
who went on teaching and preaching and spreading
themselves still farther to the north. When Edwin,
King of Deira, conquered Bernicia, many of the young
nobles of the latter country seem to have, in 617,
taken refuge at Iona, among them being Oswald, who
afterwards, in 634, invaded Northunibria, and won
back the kingdom from Penda of Mercia and Caedwalla
of Wales. As soon as he began to set things in order,
mindful of his hosts and entertainers, he sent to Iona
where he had been baptized, and asked for ' a bishop,
by whose instructions and ministry the Anglic nation
which he governed might be taught the advantages of
faith in the Lord, and receive its sacraments ; ' and in
response to this Aidan was sent. The Columban church
flourished in Northunibria for thirty years, but the
Easter difficulty and question about coronal tonsure
then proved fatal to its further existence, and the
Northumbrian church conformed to the usages enjoined
from Borne. The influence of Iona was no sooner lost,
however, to the south, than it made fresh conquests in
the north over all that wild district along the W coast
from Ardnamurchan to Loch Broom, but the parent
monastery seems to have been in a decaying condition,
for when Adamnan came into office as abbot, in 679, he
found it necessary to execute very extensive repairs, and
sent twelve vessels to Lorn for timber. He tried to
introduce the Roman calculation as to the time of
Easter, but his efforts led only to schism, which he
himself, however, did not live to see. About 717 the
continued resistance of the community to the cycles of
nineteen years, ' sent throughout all the provinces of
the Piets,' caused them to be driven across Drivmalban,
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