Iona, Scotland

Iona is about six kilometres long and two wide, has no cars to speak of and only one village, yet for fourteen centuries people have made the journey to reach it. This is where Saint Columba landed from Ireland in 563, where early Scottish kings were buried, and where an abbey still stands above white beaches and clear green water. Getting there takes some planning, since it involves two ferries and a drive across Mull, and this guide to visiting Iona covers the practical side: how to reach Iona from Oban, how long to stay, what a day on the island looks like and how accessible it is. Iona is also one of the stops on our Scottish Islands and Shetland tour. For the wider route through the islands, see our guide to island hopping around Scotland.

How do you get to Iona from Oban?

By two ferries and a drive across Mull. The CalMac ferry from Oban to Craignure on Mull takes about 45 minutes. From Craignure it is about 38 miles to Fionnphort on Mull’s south-west tip, much of it on single-track road, so allow at least an hour by car or coach. From Fionnphort, a small passenger ferry crosses the Sound of Iona in about ten minutes. It runs frequently through the day, more often in summer than in winter, so check the CalMac timetable before you travel.

You cannot take a car onto Iona without a permit, so visitors leave their cars at Fionnphort and cross on foot. Oban itself is about two and a half hours by road from Glasgow and around three from Edinburgh, with trains from Glasgow, so trips to Iona from Edinburgh usually mean a night in Oban or on Mull rather than a single long day. Our guide to the Isle of Mull covers what to see on the way across.

How long should you spend on Iona?

Half a day is enough for the abbey, the nunnery and a beach, but stay a night if you can. A day trip from Oban or Mull usually gives you a few hours on the island, and most visitors come this way, and the island is busiest in the middle of the day in summer. If you can stay a night, you see a different Iona: the day visitors leave on the late-afternoon ferries, the village goes quiet, and you have time for the north end of the island and the walk up Dùn Ì. There are two hotels and a handful of guest houses, which fill early in summer.

Things to do when you visit Iona

Sheep graze among ruins on Iona, with the hills of Mull across the Sound of Iona.

The ferry lands at the jetty in Baile Mòr, the island’s one village. From there, a short walk along the village street brings you to the ruins of the Augustinian nunnery, founded around 1200 and among the best-preserved medieval nunneries in Britain. A little further on is Reilig Odhráin, the ancient burial ground where tradition places dozens of early Scottish kings, Macbeth among them, beside the small Romanesque St Oran’s Chapel, the oldest intact building on the island.

At the end of the road, about 600 metres from the jetty, is the abbey itself, rebuilt on the site of Columba’s monastery. Its church, cloister and carved high crosses are the centre of any visit, and our article on Iona Abbey covers its history and buildings in detail. The Iona Heritage Centre in the village tells the story of island life, crofting and the lighthouse keepers.

The clear water and white sand of Iona’s east coast, looking across the Sound to Mull.

With the rest of the day, walk. The island is small enough to cross on foot, and the beaches at its north end have some of the whitest sand in the Hebrides. Dùn Ì, a little over 100 metres high, is the highest point and gives a view over the whole island to Mull, Staffa and the Treshnish Isles. Iona is also good for birds: listen for the rasping call of the corncrake in the fields in early summer, and look out for seals, gannets and, in season, passing dolphins, minke whales and basking sharks. In summer the machair and fields are full of wildflowers, including orchids.

What is the main settlement on Iona?

Baile Mòr, which simply means “large town” in Gaelic, though islanders call it the village. It is the only settlement on Iona and sits beside the ferry jetty, with the shops, the hotels, the Heritage Centre and the post office within a few minutes’ walk of each other. A small community lives here year-round, and Gaelic place names are used across the island.

Is Iona accessible for travellers with limited mobility?

Yes, for anyone who can manage a short uphill walk, though there are limits. The walk from the jetty to the abbey is about 600 metres uphill on a single-track road, and the last stretch from the ticket office is a gravel path. There is step-free access to the nave of the abbey church through the cloister entrance, but there are steps within the church, and there are no toilets at the abbey itself; the nearest are at the Iona Community shop just beyond the ticket office. A local taxi that can carry a folded wheelchair runs on the island. Historic Environment Scotland publishes full access details for the abbey and nunnery.

A short history of Iona

Iona Abbey in a drawing from around 1890, before the church was restored.

Columba arrived from Ireland in 563 with twelve companions and founded a monastery that became one of the great centres of early Christianity in Britain, sending missionaries to the Picts and to Northumbria. Viking raids began in the 790s, and in 806 sixty-eight monks were killed, remembered in the name of the beach called Martyrs’ Bay. By the middle of the ninth century Columba’s relics had been divided between Scotland and Ireland.

Around 1200, Reginald, son of Somerled, Lord of the Isles, founded a Benedictine abbey and the Augustinian nunnery, with his sister Bethóc as its first prioress. Both fell into ruin after the Reformation. In 1899 the Duke of Argyll gave the abbey to the Iona Cathedral Trust on behalf of the Church of Scotland, and the church was restored by 1910. In 1938 George MacLeod founded the Iona Community, which rebuilt the monastic buildings over the following decades and still lives and worships there today.

The restored Iona Abbey, with a carved high cross on the lawn before the west front.

Can you visit Staffa from Iona?

Yes. Boat trips run in summer from Iona and Fionnphort to Staffa, the uninhabited island of basalt columns about ten kilometres to the north, where you can see Fingal’s Cave, which inspired Mendelssohn’s Hebrides Overture, and, from late April to early August, nesting puffins. A round trip takes around three hours. Landings depend on the weather and the swell, and the basalt steps are uneven and can be slippery.

Atlantic puffins nest on Staffa from late April to early August.

Isle of Iona tours: visiting Iona with a small group

On our Scottish Islands and Shetland tour, Iona has a day to itself. The tour begins in Glasgow and spends two days on Arran (see our Isle of Arran itinerary) before crossing Kintyre to Oban and Mull. After a day exploring Mull and Tobermory, the group crosses to Iona for the abbey and the island. The trip to Staffa is not included in the tour cost, but there may be time for it if the weather and ferry timings allow. The tour then continues to Skye, the Outer Hebrides, Orkney and Shetland, and ends in Edinburgh. Groups are up to 16 travellers, and our guide to the Scottish islands sets out the whole route.

Iona rewards the effort it takes to reach it. Arrive on an early ferry, walk up past the nunnery before the crowds, and leave time for one of the north beaches before the boat back to Mull.