2-319-933 - Peter Thompson/Heritage Images

Cloisters of Iona Abbey, Argyll and Bute, Scotland. The island of Iona in the Inner Hebrides is one of the holiest sites associated with Christianity in Britain. In 563, St Columba arrived from Ireland and established a monastery on the island, embarking on his mission to convert pagan Scotland and northern England to Christianity. The monastery was abandoned after frequent Viking raids, but a Benedictine Abbey was established in the 1200s. The Protestant Reformation in Scotland saw the abbey closed in the 16th century, but the Church of Scotland began to rebuild it in the 1870s and the Iona Community was established in 1938.