MacLean's Cross

Commissioned by a MacLean chief in the late 15th century and carved by the Iona school of stone carvers, the cross is one of only three to survive the Reformation's destruction of Iona's 360 crosses. It stands on the medieval pilgrimage route to Iona Abbey, the monastery Columba founded in 563 AD.

In the last quarter of the 15th century, a chief of the Clan MacLean commissioned a stone cross for the Isle of Iona. The MacLeans of Duart and Lochbuie were the most powerful families in the district. Their chief wanted a cross that would stand on the pilgrimage route, marking both devotion and status. He turned to the Iona school of carvers, craftsmen who had maintained the tradition of stone carving on the island for generations.

They carved it from a single block of stone. On the west face, a crucifixion for the pilgrims to pray before. On the east face, the intricate plaitwork and foliage ornament that was the school's signature. At the base of the shaft, an armed horseman, perhaps the patron himself, riding across the stone. They set it in a socket slab at the junction where three paths met: the Street of the Dead, the route from the port, and the way to the nunnery.

The cross joined hundreds of others. Iona was dense with carved stone. Then the Reformation came. After 1560, reformers moved across the island, breaking crosses. Three hundred and fifty-seven fell. Three survived. MacLean's Cross was one. No one recorded why it was spared.