By Road
Return by ferry to your car at Fionnphort and follow the A849 back to Craignure. From here take the ferry to Oban.

By Cycle
Cyclists have no alternative but to use the A849, but take the smaller road into Bunessan.

By Foot
Whilst on Iona, enjoy a walk to both northern and southern points of the island.

By Public Transport
To check times go to Traveline Scotland and click on Plan your Journey on left side of page.

When checking train times only you can use Scotrail

For ferries from Iona to Fionnphort and Craignure to Oban check Calmac

For a taxi on Iona contact Iona Taxi

The bus between Fionnphort and Craignure (Bowmans Coaches (Mull)) stops at Pennyghael, Strathcoil & Lochdonhead.

Iona is Columba’s Isle though it was a sacred place before he arrived. The restored Benedictine Abbey should be experienced as part of the whole island with its many places of peace and beauty, including the ruined nunnery and the ancient burial ground of Scotland’s kings at St. Oran’s Chapel. Martyr’s Bay, where Viking raiders slaughtered the later monks, and Columba’s Bay which was the Saint’s own landfall, are also evocative of the island’s special atmosphere and story.

The people of Iona have their own community identity which can be visited at the parish church and nearby heritage centre. But the presence of Columba, even after more than fourteen hundred years, continues to imbue every aspect of the island. This was prophesied by Columba himself in the last few days of his life in 597, as recorded by Adomnan:

This place however small and lowly, will have bestowed on it no small but great honour by the kings and peoples, and also by the rulers of even barbarous and foreign nations with their subject tribes. And the Saints of other churches too will give it great reverence.

The restoration first of the Abbey Church, and then, through the leadership of the twentieth century Iona Community the Abbey buildings, is one of Scottish Christianity’s resurrection stories that continues to resonate internationally. Again though Gaelic tradition, of which Columba himself was such a notable champion, foresaw this development

Iona of my heart, Iona of my love,
Instead of monks’ voices will be the lowing of cattle;
But ere the world will come to an end
Iona shall be as it was.