An Eye on the Sail

‘The View From Iona’

Welcome to ‘The View from Iona’ project site. Find below about the project, the latest blog posts, and an image gallery from my journey.

The title of this project, ‘The View from Iona’, is taken from an article by Thomas O’Loughlin that was influential when I first began studying the island. Vividly, he remarks that on top of Dún Í, the highest point of Iona, you can see the curvature of the earth as the ocean stretches across the horizon. The importance of visually experiencing Iona is something that has captured my imagination but which I have yet to experience myself. How important is it to experience the physical ‘View from Iona’, and see the world through the eyes of these Atlantic facing monks, to gain a true understanding of this island at the centre of my research?

That is the question I hope to answer in this project.

Iona Seen From Its Pier

About

The ‘View from Iona’ is a project that follows my personal and first journey to the island of Iona. There, I will post a daily blog over the course of a week connecting my personal experience of the island with the history of its medieval monastery and my research into that monastery’s connection to its landscape and seascape.

The View from Iona