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Field Visit
Date June 1980
Event ID 1121954
Category Recording
Type Field Visit
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1121954
Iona Nunnery
The remains of this Augustinian nunnery stand on the raised beach about 400 m sw of the Abbey, and close to the landing-place at St Ronan's Bay. To the w, the rocky eminence of Cnoc Mór (66m OD) gives the site a certain amount of shelter from the prevailing winds. The remains comprise the nunnery church, together with portions of associated conventual buildings lying on the s side. The original early-13th-century layout is to a large extent preserved, and most of the existing buildings can be ascribed to this period, apart from the S and W claustral ranges, which were enlarged and rebuilt around a more spacious c1oister-garth towards the end of the 15th century. Certain alterations were also made to the church at this time in order to increase the amount of accommodation and to provide an additional altar-chapel. Following the cessation of religious life in the 16th century the buildings gradually become ruinous, and remained derelict until about 1874, when the surviving portions of the fabric were repaired and consolidated; the church was partially restored in 1923.
The church itself is fairly well preserved, much of the W and N walls, together with the restored N chapel, standing almost to their original heights . The chancel-arch and the vault and most of the E wall of the chancel, however, collapsed about 1832, while the s wall of the nave and the walls of the N aisle are also reduced to their lower courses, as are those of the E range of conventual buildings. Much of the s range of the cloister stands to its full height, together with part of the inner wall of the w range, but the outer wall of the w range and much of its internal area lie beneath the roadway that skirts the wand s sides of the site.
The buildings are constructed partly of red granite boulders and partly of dark-grey rubble comprising mainly basalt and Torridonian flagstones . The latter are readily available on the island, as for example in the outcrops on the adjacent foreshore , while the granite was probably obtained from local glacial boulders and erratic blocks. The dressings are of yellowish-green Carsaig sandstone, whose poor weathering-qualities have led to considerable deterioration in the condition of nearly all early carvings and mouldings. Some of the nunnery buildings appear to have been roofed with micaceous flags, a number of which can be seen built into the sides of the beam-sockets associated with the w nave-gallery of c. 1500; these were probably quarried in the Ross of Mull.
Although the drawings prepared for inclusion in this Inventory are based on recent in situ measurements, reference has also been made to detailed survey-drawings made by Sir Henry Dryden and John Watson in 1874-5,when some of the mouldings were in a better state of preservation. A number of 18th- and 19th-century drawings are also available which, although not accurate in detail, preserve a valuable record of parts of the building which have since collapsed.
See RCAHMS 1982 pp. 152-79 for a full account of the building.
RCAHSM 1982, visited June 1980
