argyll-1982/02_002

Transcription

This volume, the fourth of a series covering the
former County of Argyll, is devoted to the
island of Iona. It contains well over 500
drawings and photographs, which are
integrated with the text and accompanied by
tow coloured plans and five detailed elevations
and sections of Iona Abbey.

The Early Christian monastery founded by St
Columba was one of the most famous in the
British Isles and the volume summarises a
decade of survey and excavation of its buildings
and enclosing earthworks. The collection of
over one hundred early carved stones, the
largest in Scotland, is recorded by a complete
series of scale drawings; mor than half of the
stones are illustrated for the first time, and
important new evidence is presented about the
structure and ornament of the celebrated High
Crosses. The artistic relationships of the
sculpture are discussed in an introduction to
the volume and the history of the monastery is
fully described.

Iona Abbey was the most important and
elaborate ecclesiastical building in the West
Highlands, while the ruins of the nearby
Nunnery are among the most complete of their
type in Britain. Both buildings are analysed in
detail, with particular emphasis on their varied
sculptural ornament, and a feature of the
volume is the use of early drawings and
photographs to record their appearance before
modern restoration. Many of the fine
late-medieval graveslabs, effigies and crosses are
shown in specially taken photographs. Also
recorded are the Romanesque chapel of St
Oran, with its famous burial-ground, and a
number of other small chapels and burial-grounds.

Secular monuments of the island include a
Bronze Age burial-cairn, an Iron Age hill-fort,
deserted townships and shielings, the village
and croft-houses of the improvement era, and
the marble-quarry with its machinery, all of
which are recorded and planed in their
historical setting.

£45 net