It was one of the most important libraries in Western Europe, where St Columba’s monks sat down to write and illustrate the globally-renowned Book of Kells, before being interrupted by the Vikings.
Iona Abbey’s library was then largely abandoned, while the monks took their great manuscript to the safety of Ireland. However now £100,000 of lottery money is to “rescue” the memory of the library, bringing it into the digital age.
The current library was restored during the rebuilding of the Iona Abbey after 1938, when the Iona Community was formed by the Rev George MacLeod, later Lord MacLeod of Fuinary. But it was hidden away above the cloisters and few ever saw it or its significant collection.
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The Iona Cathedral Trust, which owns the abbey/cathedral and other religious sites, has received £100,000 from the Heritage Lottery Fund, to rectify that. Its project will create a new Heritage Collection for the tiny island made famous by the arrival of migrants in the sixth century.
St Columba had sailed from Ireland in a coracle with 12 followers and landed on the south of the island at a place still known in Gaelic as Port a`Churaich, meaning Bay of the Coracle.
It established Iona as a centre of Christianity of international renown. Some 48 Scottish, eight Norwegian and four Irish kings are buried there.
There was a literary legacy too and the current library includes collections of national significance. Gaelic manuscripts and examples of Celtic art are among the treasures that will now be restored. A digital catalogue of the Heritage Collection will be made available online courtesy of the expertise being shared by the University of the Highlands and Islands. The lottery grant will enable the Cathedral Trust to preserve the library for future generations.
The project plans to uplift several hundred library items to conservators on the mainland for restoration and repair over the next two years.
The Chairman of the Iona Cathedral Trust, the Very Rev Dr Finlay Macdonald said, “We are delighted this gem of a library can be made more accessible and our valuable heritage preserved thanks to this support from the Heritage Lottery Fund. Iona Cathedral attracts many visitors, but the library is hidden away over the cloisters. Many more people will be able to enjoy it thanks to this grant.”
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Lucy Casot, Head of HLF Scotland, said: “This is a great project that, thanks to the National Lottery players, will transform the Iona Abbey Library Project for future visitors and encourage everyone to enjoy its amazing heritage collections. Heritage Lottery Fund is delighted to give its support.”
Iona Abbey is one of Scotland’s top heritage attractions, and the island of Iona regularly attracts more than 130,000 visitors each year. But they have to go to Trinity College in Dublin to see the Book of Kells.
Its lavishly decorated Latin scriptures are on vellum or prepared calfskin. It is thought the work on the book may have been finished at the monastery in Kells, County Meath, where Iona monks fled following the arrival of the Vikings at the start of the ninth century.
The Columban monastery largely survived until the end of the 12th century, when the Lords of the Isles founded a Benedictine abbey. But monastic life on Iona ended with the Reformation in the mid 16th century.
In 1874 the Duke of Argyll, whose family had owned Iona for almost 200 years, commissioned architects, to oversee early repairs to the abbey ruins. Twenty five years later he transferred ownership of the abbey, nunnery and Reilig Odhrain ( the burial ground) to the Iona Cathedral Trust. In 2000 the properties were leased by the trustees for 175 years to Scottish Ministers and they are now managed by Historic Environment Scotland.
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It is one of the organisations supporting the new project which also includes the Iona Community, the University of the Highlands and Islands, as well as Iona Community Council.
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