Isle of Iona: Holy Burial Ground of Scottish Kings

No trip to Scotland would be complete without a visit to one of the stony islands. I chose the Isle of Iona because guess what was on it? Yep, big stone buildings. And ruins. And Macbeth's grave. Okay, that last one wasn't as obvious. 

I took a ferry to the Isle of Mull, where the hostel was closed but I found a quaint bed and breakfast. I had considered biking to the other side of the island, but then logistics, sense, and the hours of the bike rental place determined that I should take the bus. From there I took a smaller ferry to Iona. 

Our brief tour's first stop was the ruined Nunnery. 

Then we were off to the recently restored Iona Abbey. It is unknown where exactly forty eight early Scottish kings were interred, so I couldn't pay my respects to Macbeth, but they were somewhere in this graveyard. 

The abbey is famed for its Celtic patterned crosses.

This may be the best picture I took the whole trip:

St. John's Cross is the first known cross to feature the circular support to the junction. 

Other grave relics were kept here as well. 

Griffin!

Soon it was time to return on our small passenger ferry. 

I didn't really want to wait several hours for the bus back to the far end of the Isle of Mull, so I hitched a ride with others who had been on the Iona trip. We stopped by an area that was supposed to have standing stones, but after trekking through mud (an activity for which I had the footwear, but everyone else did not) we only found some cairns. But the view was wonderful in any case. 

One woman took me the rest of the way to the ferry, and even onward. She was a very nice and generous person but a bit... odd. She is a former Mormon and has six children. We discussed her current beliefs. I am now completely convinced that the belief system involving UFO tampering being responsible for humanity is a religion. It absolutely fits the model of total faith in the absence of evidence. Anyway, she was kind enough to drop me off near Glasgow.