Isle of Iona

Inner Hebrides

The exiled Irish prince and missionary St Columba reached Iona in 563 to found his community, landing at pebbled St Columba’s Bay in the south, as the legend goes. Originally dating from the 12th century, the restored abbey remains a much-revered place of pilgrimage. An enjoyable walk across the windswept machair leads to the Bay at the Back of the Ocean, with its Spouting Cave, facing the open Atlantic and America.