Iona
— — the small island that lit the north.
Not only on a wall.
“A small island in the Inner Hebrides, about five kilometres long and a mile and a half wide, off the southwest tip of Mull. Saint Columba landed here from Ireland in 563 and founded a monastery that sent missionaries across the north of Britain for the next two centuries. The restored Abbey still stands above the eastern shore, with the Sound of Iona between it and Mull. The light here, on a clear day, is the thing islanders mention first.
Iona, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
The place, in three passes.
Iona is a small island in the Inner Hebrides of Scotland, set off the southwestern tip of the Isle of Mull and separated from it by the narrow Sound of Iona. The island runs about five kilometres north to south and around two and a half kilometres at its widest, with a year-round population of roughly 170. The geology is Lewisian gneiss, among the oldest exposed rock in Britain at around two billion years. Iona sits within the council area of Argyll and Bute and lies within the Loch Lomond and Trossachs aspect of Scottish heritage protection.
Iona Abbey stands on the site Saint Columba chose in 563 after he crossed from Ireland with twelve companions. The current Benedictine church dates mainly from the late twelfth and early thirteenth centuries, with extensive restoration begun by the Iona Cathedral Trust in 1899 and continued by the Iona Community after 1938. Saint Oran's Chapel beside the Abbey is the oldest intact building on the island, from around 1200. Forty-eight early Scottish kings, including Macbeth, are recorded as buried in the Reilig Odhrain cemetery beside it.
Iona is reached by a two-stage journey: the CalMac ferry from Oban to Craignure on Mull, a road of about sixty kilometres across Mull to Fionnphort, then the short passenger ferry across the Sound of Iona. Cars are restricted on the island, so most visitors walk or cycle the single road. Day-trips peak in summer, with around 130,000 visitors a year crossing for the Abbey, the white-sand beaches at the north end, and the marble quarry on the south coast. The Iona Community still runs a daily rhythm of worship in the Abbey.