Pilgrimage to Iona: Discovering the Ancient Secrets of the Sacred Isle

The little island of Iona has a rich tradition of spiritual and historical mystery. Legends abound of Jesus and Mary Magdalene alighting and living here for a period prior to the Crucifixion, as well as the suggestion that Jesus visited the island with his mother under the escort of Joseph of Arimathea. The stories of angel sightings on Iona are legion, with claims that the island was once an exalted temple of natural beauty and wilderness, where only angels’ feet trod and no earthliness was allowed to encroach on its sanctity.

The theme of the book, as well as the celebration of sacred Iona as a place of pilgrimage, is the unveiling of the the secret of Rosslyn Chapel, the unique and extraordinary little unfinished building just beyond Edinburgh that was made famous by Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code. Iona and Rosslyn are united by ancient history, and particularly by the Culdees, the monks of Iona who settled there under St Columba late in the sixth century, and who eventually gave rise to the Templars, whose secret legacy is said to be the mystery of Rosslyn Chapel. The significance of Iona, and the veneration it inspires in its pilgrims, both reaches back into the depths of history and points towards a spiritual future.