CLOG (Univ. of Glasgow)
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Angels, Fairies and St Michael: some thoughts on Sìthean Mòr
Full text linkThis is the first of several chapters exploring the names and traditions of the small hill called Sìthean Mòr, also known as Cnoc (nan) Aingeal. Here, its associations with supernatural beings are explored. 
‘Noble foster-mother of Christ’: St Brigit and Iona during the Celtic Revival and beyond
Full text linkIn this chapter, the modern traditions connecting St Brigit to Iona are discussed, its origins and its continued evolution
The Book of Kells and eastern Pictland, revisited
Full text linkThere are numerous elements in the art of the Book of Kells which resonate closely with Pictish sculpture. These have been catalogued and analysed most carefully by Isabel Henderson (1982), while Julian Brown explored the possibility of a Pictish origin for the manuscript on more palaeographical grounds (1972). While Iona has become generally accepted as the Book\u27s birthplace in the scholarly narrative, the evidence supporting this hypothesis is tenuous, and the manuscript\u27s \u27Pictishness\u27 demands acknowledgement. This paper re-evaluates the evidence in the aftermath of the recent excavations at Portmahomack on the Tarbat peninsula. It also examines some of those \u27Pictish\u27 instances in the light of convincing new theories about the creation of the Book of Kells (MacGabhann 2015), and it asks how those instances fit into the modus operandi of the manuscript as a whole. Given the mobility of scribes and books, as well as the fact that Iona was part of \u27Greater Pictland\u27 during the probable period of the Book of Kells\u27 creation, it is impossible to draw firm conclusions about the manuscript\u27s origin. It is, however, possible to ask why and how the artists chose to work in such a Pictish idiom
Blàr Buidhe and other colours in Iona place-names
Full text linkThis chapter discusses the various ways in which colours appear in the place-names of Iona
Ì Chaluim Chille
Full text linkThis chapter explores the presence, and absence, of the name of its founding saint in the place-names of Iona
Contested succession at Iona (704-26)
Full text linkFrom the death of Columba to that of Adomnán, the annalistic witnesses, ultimately based on an Iona record, routinely feature obituary notices for Iona’s abbots. However, in 707 the record exhibits an innovation: for the first time it features an entry outlining the succession to an office at Iona. This kickstarts a short-lived annalistic phenomenon, whereby between 707 and 724 five succession notices appear alongside the customary obituaries. This break with established tradition suggests that something was happening on Iona, however, the terse entries are not detailed enough to reveal exactly what this was. This article steps back from previous interpretations to assess the implications of the succession entries for the operation of the Iona abbacy. By evaluating the period through the lens of succession procedure, it is argued that the initial phase of contention pivoted around Dúnchad, who took the abbacy in 707. Trouble did not subside following the conclusion of this first phase, as the emergence of the elusive Feidlimid in 722 makes apparent. While the nature of his interjection remains unclear, the article provides scenarios for interpretating his role in events.
Durrow’s lion: Irenaeus, Pictish stonescapes, and the Book of Durrow’s non-Hieronymian evangelical symbols
Full text linkThe Book of Durrow’s curious switching of the Markan and Johannine evangelical symbols—contrary to Jerome’s Tetramorph—has long been dismissed as nothing more than a return to Irenaeus’s second-century hermeneutical formulation. In this essay, I argue against the notion that Irenaeus’s influence was the primary force behind this major artistic intervention. I propose instead that the Markan-Johannine iconographic switch was influenced by Pictish imagery, remediated from three-dimensional stonework into an Insular manuscript. Rejecting the analytical primacy of elite textual transmission, I utilize contemporary frameworks to recover a proposed ‘atmosphere of Pictish ambience’ that might have influenced the manuscript’s artistic program. With consideration of mobility between Iona and Pictland along the Great Glen, I thus situate the Book of Durrow firmly within its landscape context. By concluding with a focus on the Johannine lion, I ultimately demonstrate that the Durrow artist’s rendering of the evangelical symbols may be read in light of a shared Pictish and Columban visual vocabulary
‘Rowing through the infinite storm’: Iona’s mental map of its ocean geography in the Life of St Columba
Full text linkIona used a series of mental maps to understand its political and spiritual relationships in the British Isles and the wider world. This phenomenon has been observed in Adomnán’s Life of Columba and De Locis Sanctis. A mental map of concentric circles can be applied to Iona’s understanding of its ocean geography. Those nearby waters of Dál Riata provided little risk; the waters of Pictland challenged the monks and had the possibility of monsters; the open ocean and the far Atlantic, the ‘infernal zone’, was a far more existential test.
How the monks interacted with each ‘circle’ surrounding their island reveals an essential anxiety for the monks of Iona. A rogue wave, a rising whale, a heavy storm that could sink their boats: these show how Iona understood its ocean surroundings. The peril of maritime travel these monks feared was not the risk to life, but the temptation to break one’s faith. To break faith in their religious mission, in the power of Columba, in salvation itself. This danger increased as the monks strayed from the power of St Columba, step by step away from Iona, to where he alone could not help you