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Field Visit
Date June 1979
Event ID 1121899
Category Recording
Type Field Visit
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1121899
‘Mound’, Port na Curaich, Iona (NM 263 217)
This small bay at the extreme S end of the island , whose name means ‘Harbour of the Curragh (skin-covered boat)’, and which is often referred to as 'St Columba's Bay', was traditionally identified as the landing-place of the saint on his arrival from Ireland. From the end of the 17th century onwards there are numerous accounts of visits by tourists who were taken there for that reason, and to collect the attractive pebbles of serpentine found on the beach, commonly known as 'Iona stones' or 'Iona pebbles' (1). Visitors were also shown a feature on the grassy area at the head of the bay, which was reputed to perpetuate the size and shape of the saint's boat. An account written before 1701 states that 'the length of this curachan or ship is … marked up at the head of the harbour upon the grass between two litle pillars of stons set up to shew forth ye samain (same), between which pillars there is three score of foots in lenth’ (2), and other 18th-century visitors also recorded the existence of two stones, or heaps of stones, which had disappeared by 1850 (3). Whereas some writers were unspecific about the nature of the intervening space, Martin describes it as 'a dock which was dug out' and a visitor in 1771 was shown a 'cavity' with 'massive stones erected at each end' (4).
Other writers, however, recorded 'an oblong heap of earth' , or 'an artificial mound, in the form of a boat with the keel up', which according to Graham had 'a little mound behind, representing the small boat which was towed astern' (5). This mound, which is grass-covered and aligned WNW and ESE, measures about 22m by 7.5m and is 0·6m high. Excavations in 1878 and 1897 revealed no evidence of artificial origin (6), and it is probably an isolated portion of storm-beach.
RCAHMS 1982, visited June 1979
(1) Sacheverell , Voyage, 143; Geog. Coll., 2, 217, 219 ; Martin, Western Islands, 291; Sharp, LW (ed.), Early Letters of Robert Wodrow, SHS (1937), 162 , 226; Irish Tourist, Iona, 17; Pennant, Tour (1772), 1,298; Boswell, Tour, 338; Clarke, 'Journal', 318; Murray, Guide, 2, 44, 212. Douglas's Map of 1769 marks 'Portichury, Remarkable for Pebles'.
(2) Nat. Lib of Scot. , Wodrow Letters, Quarto, vol. ii (unpaginated) , quoted in Maidment, J (ed.), Analecta Scotica, 1, 115; NSA, 7 (Argyll), 316; Adamnan, Columba (Skene), p. cxli, and Antiquity, 7 (l933), 454.Pococke, Tours, 87; Irish Tourist, Iona, 16; Boswell , Tour, 338; Graham , Iona, 5.
(3) Martin, Western Islands, 291; Irish Tourist, Iona, 16.
(4) Pennant, Tour (1772),1, 298; Stat. Acct., 14 (1795), 203; Garnett, Tour, 1, 266; Graham, Iona, 5 and pl. iii.
(5) Scottish Geographical Magazine, 3 (1887), 82- 3; MacMillan, Iona, 90.
