Orkney and Shetland - The Northern Isles
To many people on the UK mainland and beyond, the
Shetland and Orkney Islands are 'somewhere up at the top' of the map
of Great Britain. In fact the Shetland Isles are located in the
North Atlantic, as close to Norway as to Aberdeen, whilst the Orkney
islands are located six miles north of the Scottish mainland. In
the early 8th and 9th centuries the Vikings arrived in the Shetland
Islands looking for land and for the next 600 years or so the
Norsemen ruled both Orkney and Shetland....
St Columba and the Isle of Iona
Lying
off the west coast of the Isle of Mull is the tiny Isle of Iona,
barely three miles long by one mile wide. Iona's place in history
was secured when in 563 AD St. Columba arrived on its white sandy
beaches with 12 followers, built his first Celtic church and
established a monastic community...
Isle of Iona, Scotland
Lying off
the west coast of the Isle of Mull, the tiny Isle of Iona, barely
three miles long by one mile wide, has had an influence out of all
proportion to its size to the establishment of Christianity in
Scotland, England and throughout mainland Europe...
