This is a decisive time in this island's history. The Irish monk, Colmcille, has journeyed from Lough Foyle with twelve clansmen, seeking to establish a religious foundation. Colmcille is an important personage, a member of the O'Neills of Ulster, one of Ireland's ruling dynasties. He is a man of influence, who can appeal to the king of Dal Riada for assistance in his mission.

     After this work is completed, other buildings need to be built. Colmcille has an office called the tegorium, built on top of a rocky mound known as Tórr an Aba. From this vantage point, he can oversee the labours of his monks, while attending to his own work as a scribe. Visitors to the monastery stay in the hospitium, while there is one communal building for all the monks, housing their cooking and eating facilities. The most important structure for these men is their church, built from oak rather than wattles.

The monks on Iona form a self-sufficient community, maintaining a tannery, and iron and wood workshops. The western plain of the island is given over to tillage, supplying the community with sufficient grain for bread the whole year through. There are livestock to be attended to also: cattle, sheep and pigs. The monks also hunt deer on the neighbouring, larger island of Mull, and they go on special expeditions to catch seals, valuable for oil for lamps.

     Throughout all this physical work, the focus on God and the religious life is maintained. Whatever tasks the monks are engaged in, there is a call to prayer every three hours, vespers in the evening, and later still, the midnight office. They are thus bonded with one another, and united with God.

Situated on a small island, the monastery is naturally isolated, though there is significant contact with the outside world. Visitors come from sister monasteries in Ireland, bringing with them letters from abbots and kings, seeking the advice of Colmcille. The far roving Brendan of Clonfert is one such distinguished guest. Penitent sinners come looking for spiritual guidance, and are directed to the island of Canna near Skye, where Colmcille has founded another monastery. He often goes to pray there, himself.

     Colmcille is a renowned scribe in his day, and he starts a tradition of reverence and celebration of the written word on Iona, which continues after his time. To mark the bicentenary of Colmcille's death, the monks start work on an illuminated transcription of the gospels. In the Annals of Ulster, it is referred to as 'The Great Gospel of Colmcille'. It is an item of rare, ornate beauty. With the advent of the Viking raids, it becomes unsafe for such a treasure to be housed on Iona, and it is transferred to a new monastery in Kells, Co Meath, where it is brought to completion. It is known to the world as The Book of Kells.

The man responsible for giving us the biography of Colmcille ('Vita Columbae') is Adomnán, a man of letters, who becomes abbot in 679. When the Gaulish bishop, Arculf, is washed up on the west coast of Britain, he makes his way to Iona to meet this learned monk. Arculf tells Adomnán all about his travels in the Holy Land and the Near East, which Adomnán subsequently turns into a book, 'De Locis Sanctis'. The travel book is born.