Iona Nunnery - History

History

The nunnery was founded after the establishment of the Benedictine monastery, which was likely founded by Raghnall mac Somhairle in 1203. Raghnall's sister, Bethóc, became the first prioress. This was one of the two Augustinian nunneries in Scotland, St. Leonards Nunnery located at Perth being the other.

In the Abbey museum of the nearby Iona Abbey, the top half of a headstone of Anna MacLean, a prioress of the monastery of nuns who died in 1543, is on display.

Restoration work on the nunnery occurred in 1923 and 1993.

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