Since visiting the Isle of Iona the other day I have been thinking about why people feel that it is a place they should make a pilgrimage to. I have to admit it wasn't quite what I expected, though I'm not entirely sure what I was expecting. It is clearly a tourist trap for the islands of the Highlands, with people flocking on to the ferry, many of whom end up at the Abbey, but the Abbey is no more than a stone church. The windows are no more than clear glass. There is no vaulted ceiling to gaze at in wonder at the craftmanship. It looks a church that in place has seen better days as the bracken grows through stone work. As I stood by the altar (yes altar... it was definitely not a table even it declares itself as a table) and looked out at the body of the Abbey, I struggled to see what it was that made this sacred ground worth make a pilgrimage too.
So it was St Columba's stomping ground, fair enough. But is that only reason to be a pilgrim to such a place. What about that peace, that absorbing holiness, which I have experienced in other such places?
Maybe it was this particular day, maybe it was me, maybe I was expecting something that was unrealistic. But then I walked outside, I walked down to the beach and looked out across to Mull. Maybe what I was looking for was not within four stone walls, but what was outside surrounding it. Maybe that's why St Columba sat on a small hill outside to Abbey to work, rather than sit enclosed within it.
Who knows, but all I know that I will come back again to sit and stare out across to Mull.
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