[NB : The idea of a installing a plaque was from Robert McDonald Parker, Edinburgh.]
- THIS MONASTERY OF THE LATER MIDDLE AGES, WHICH IS ALREADY SPECIAL TO SCOTLAND BECAUSE IT WAS NOT TOTALLY DESTROYED LIKE MANY OTHERS BY THE 14th CENTURY WARS OF INDEPENDENCE, AND THEN NEITHER BY THE REFORMATION AND CIVIL WARS, IS PROBABLY UNIQUE IN BRITAIN FOR ANOTHER REASON.
- FOR EFFECTIVELY ITS ENTIRE EXISTENCE OVER THE WHOLE LATER MEDIEVAL PERIOD, IONA ABBEY WAS RECREATED, PROSPERED AND GREW UNDER THE ONE CONTINUOUS FAMILY OF FOUNDER, BUILDERS, PATRONS, BENEFACTORS AND ENDOWERS – FROM FOUNDATION TO PRE-DISSOLUTION.[1] THIS IS CERTAINLY RARE. THIS MACDONALD FAMILY OUGHT TO BE ACKNOWLEDGED PUBLICLY AND PROMINENTLY AS SUCH ON THE ABBEY. [2]
[1] BETWEEN 1494 AND 1534, THE ABBEY WAS BUT AN UNWORTHY PASTICHE – A SLUSH FUND. In 1534 King Henry broke with the Pope and by the Act of Supremacy made himself the supreme head of the church in his lands. The 1535 Valor Ecclesiasticus (church valuation) was not done in Scotland.
[2] ".........an inauguration stone, which stood beside the door of a newly built church, recording the name of the aristocratic donor" (founder and heirs). "Pilgrimage in Medieval Scotland", p.35; Peter Yeoman.
