Archaeology Notes

Event ID 673284

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/673284

NM22SE 14.00 28487 24095.

NM22SE 14.01 2843 2410 Iona Nunnery Sheela-na-gig

For (restored) Iona Abbey or St Mary's Cathedral (NM 2867 2451), see NM22SE 5.

(NM 2843 2410) Nunnery (NR) (In Ruins)

OS 6" map, Argyllshire, 2nd ed., (1900)

The remains of an Augustinian priory founded in 1207 or 1208 and dedicated to St Mary (Skene 1873) or St Oran (Pennant 1934).

In 1574 the prioress and convent disposed of the lands, which suggests that the priory was dissolved about that time.

The remains, substantial and, at least in part, original were repaired in 1923 and the cloister garth planted as a memorial garden. Many early sculptured stones are preserved in the convent.

In the NMAS are four silver spoons and a broken gold fillet found during preservation work in December 1922 at the base of the south respond of the chancel arch. There were indications that they had been deposited, wrapped in linen, in the 13th century.

The priory is sometimes attributed to the Benedictines, but Vatican records describe it as Augustinian.

D E Easson 1957; D MacGibbon and T Ross 1896-7; A O Curle 1924; W F Skene 1875; T Pennant 1774; A Ritchie and E Ritchie 1934.

The remains of the priory are as described and planned.

Visited by OS (JP) 8 June 1972.

NM22SE 5 (Abbey); NM 284 240 (Nunnery) Resistivity and geophysical surveys were undertaken at Iona Abbey (see NM22SE 5) and Nunnery by Geophysical Surveys of Bradford for AOC(Scotland)Ltd.

At the Nunnery, a broad, curvilinear magnetic anomaly appears to respect the NE corner of the convent buildings. While this may simply represent an igneous geological feature, it may, alternatively, represent buried road metalling in igneous materials. In the same part of the site, a rectilinear group of features offering high resistance may represent buried wall-butts.

Sponsor: Iona Cathedral Trust Ltd.

J O'Sullivan 1995.