The next day we went to Iona

we caught a 15 minute ferry to this island. It is famous because St Columba landed here from Ireland to christianise Scotland. There is an Abbey which was partly demolished during the Reformation but has been rebuilt. We were a little underwhelmed by this island. It felt a little too touristy- we were amongst 1000s of tourists. We did a walk through the Abbey ending up in the shop which was very polished  with little furry bears dressed as monks and heaps of other merchandise with the Iona brand - all quite tasteful but I suspect most of it was imported. 

We went for a walk to the headland but that was a bit ho-hum.  Some photos:

The nunnery

The pilgrims stopped here on the way to the abbey.  

Here is the abbey  

Gravestones  

Inside of the abbey.  

St Columba slept on a stone pillow and someone found a stone which was thought to be his but it was not so but they have kept this one anyway. 

An interesting sculpture.  

And that was Iona. I was thinking it would ‘feel’ more spiritual but not so.