The Pilgrimage Walk Around Iona

Water is essential to life. On Iona, in the summer, the reservoir sometimes runs dry. In many parts of the world, especially in many African and Asian countries, clean water is not available and has to be carried - sometimes for miles. Our walk to the reservoir helps us think about how we use the world's resources.

Some of the oldest rocks in the world are found on Iona. Marble has been quarried here since medieval times. The Communion Table in the Abbey is made from Iona Marble. The Quarry is a good place to think about creation and the way we live.

"There is no bird on the wing
There is no star in the sky
There is nothing beneath the sun
But proclaims God's glory".
(Carmina Gadelica" volumes 1 and 3)

This is said to be the place where Columba and his monks first landed on Iona, on the day of Pentecost in 563. For Columba, it was the place where one journey ended and another began (the place where he stopped running away from his past in Ireland, and started something new on Iona and throughout Scotland). Here is a place where we too can think about our own endings and beginnings.

Many believe that Columba arrived in Iona as part of God's call for him and his monks, Here pilgrims can think about God's call for them - at the place of new beginnings.