THE
P RTAL
July 2018
Page 18
Iona, the Isle of Kings?
Eliza Trebelcock has visited this most famous of Islands
I stayed in
Oban and took the 9.50am Ferry to Mull. We disembarked 1 hour 21 minutes later at
Craignure on the east of the island. As this is the opposite end of the Isle of Mull to Iona, it was an hour’s
drive through spectacular mountain scenery across the Isle to Fionnphort, then on another ferry for the ten
minute crossing to Iona.
The weather was terrible. Torrential rain all day.
Arrival on Iona was not until 1pm. This coincided
with two cruise ships. The place was very wet, and
very crowded. There was little in the way of reverence.
Tourists everywhere, with precious little respect for
the Island of St Columba. “However, there are two who are definitely buried
here. The first is Lulach. Macbeth’s step son. He was
certainly buried here. He reigned from 1057 until
1058. We are not absolutely positive if he died in 1058,
but that is the date he reigned as King of Scotland,
directly after Macbeth.
I had an appointment with a representative from
Historic Scotland. Iona is, of course, an historic and
holy place. Ancient saints lived here. Much of Scotland
was evangelised from here. Despite all this, I was
interested in the ancient kings of Scotland who are
reputed to be buried here. “The second King, King of the Scots that we know
of for sure has various spellings, it is Donald Bane, or
Donal. He reigned twice – first from 1093 to 1094; then
from 1094 to 1097. He became Donald III. He was the
son of Duncan I, so was part of the same Macbeth and
Duncan dynasty.
Ros was my guide. We met in the Chapter House
of the re-built abbey. Her initial remarks were not
encouraging as far as those kings were concerned. “We
have no definite proof of the kings which are here. We
do know of two kings, but apart from that, very little. It
could be a misconception that kings like Macbeth and
other kings are buried here, it could also be the truth,
but we have no archaeological proof. “He came from Duncan. We are well before the Lords
of the Isles. They were all different: Lulach his mother
was Greorcham of Scotland and his father was from
Moray. Donald Bane’s father Duncan I came from
Dunkeld. His mother was from the House of Dunkeld.
He became Donald III. He did die in 1099 and was in
prison when he died. He was buried, then exhumed
and brought to Iona. They are the only two we know
are here for sure.
“The reason a lot of people did think that the
Scottish kings were here is because the king list says for
instance ‘Macbeth in Iona est’, meaning that Macbeth
is in Iona. However, it says that under everybody, so
whether this is actually a recording that they were all
in Iona or because it said it under one and it was just
copied down.
Turning to other people buried on Iona, Ros said,
“There are Vikings here. There are wonderful Viking
stones. These are Christian Vikings. In our shop we
have the Rumi stone with translation. In our museum,
which you must visit, there are also a couple of Viking
stones, one of them has the fools hammer, not the