S
tep off the boat, and know that below your feet may lie the bones of Norsemen,
vanquished by Macbeth. Shakespeare says Norway’s King Sweno paid 10,000 dollarsto allow his fallen warriors to be buried on Inchcolm Island in the Firth of Forth.
An island burial was worth the money for it allowed the honoured corpses to rest safe
from being devoured by the wolves that prowled the mainland. More than a thousand years
on, this strange little island is still full of the reminders of its history as a place of both refuge
and defence. Just over half-a-mile long and hourglass-shaped, Inchcolm lies opposite the
City of Edinburgh, just off the coast of Fife.
It is dominated by the remarkably well-preserved remains of an Augustinian abbey, built
on raised ground towards the east end. Presumably, the abbey’s island location helped to
save it from complete destruction by Protestant zealots or plunderers looking for good-
quality stone aer the Dissolution of the Monasteries. e boat from South Queensferry
sails through the centuries.
NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 2016 SCOTTISH ISLANDS EXPLORER 45
Inchcolm
Susan Hulmeinvestigates the ‘Iona’ beside the city
Inchcolm
‘ ... a hermit who served St Columba
lived here in the 12th Century ...’