Isle of Women - Eileen nam Ban

It was in 2012, during time spent on Iona recovering from my near-death experience, that I was introduced to the mysterious ‘Isle of Women’. This little island is nestled between the Isle of Iona and the Isle of Mull. I had previously been vaguely aware of the existence of the ‘Isle of Women’ because I had seen her identified in Gaelic as ‘Eilean nam Ban’ on old maps of Iona. But I had never tried to locate her all the times that I had been on Iona. It just never occurred to me because my attention was always with the magic of Iona.

It was during my trip to see the island of Staffa that I suddenly realized how physically close the Isle of Women actually is to Iona, and how very beautiful she is. It was Davie, the delightfully wise and witty tour boat Captain, who pointed out the Isle of Women as we cruised close by her through the Sound of Iona on the way to Staffa.

It was a memorable moment because the boat was close enough to the east side of the island to see various rock formations, and particularly, the beautiful pink granite rock that dominates the southern tip of the island. The moment was suddenly filled with the mystery and intrigue of her unknown history. How did she get her name? I instinctively felt that there were certain yet-to-be-discovered stories about the women, and about how they lived and worked there so many, many years ago. The island looked wild and pristine; it was uninhabited. Yet, it had a certain glow, nestled as it was in the brilliant sea, in the Sound of Iona.

It was the name, of course, that had first intrigued me, and later through my research, I learned that there were other islands in Scotland, and around the world, that were also called the ‘Isle of Women’, or similarly referenced. There is the Isle of Women, ‘Eileen nam Ban’ located in Loch Leven, near Kinlochleven in the Highlands, and ‘Eileen nam Ban’ near Carsaig, in eastern Mull. There is also the Isle of Eigg in Scotland which was known until the sixteenth century as ‘Eilean Nimban More’, the ‘Island of Powerful Women’. There is also the famous pre-Columbian ‘Isla de Mujures’ (Isle of Women) off the coast of the Yucatan Peninsula. That island was dedicated to the Mayan Goddess of childbirth and medicine, Ix Chel. There is the Isle of Sena in Brittany, known in legends for the nine powerful seers and priestesses that inhabited the island. The most famous island of women must surely be the original location of Egypt’s Temple of Isis, Philae Island.

In Britain, Druidesses were known to isolate themselves to certain special islands, typically small islands that were close to a larger island (in this case, the Isle of Women is very close to the Isle of Mull as well as very close to the Isle of Iona). There is also Holy Island (or Holyhead Island) on the western side of the larger island of Anglesey, Wales. Anglesey is also known to have been a primary centre of Druidism and one of the last strongholds of Druidism in Britain. Holy Island itself has standing stones, burial chambers, and other sites of Druidic practice.

Staffa is an extraordinary little island situated to the north-northeast of Iona, and north-north-west of the Isle of Women. As a result of volcanic activity sixty million years ago, Staffa was built of nature’s natural, hexagonal-shaped, basalt pillars. Staffa has three significant caves (including the mythical Fingal’s Cave). Its unique hexagonal, cathedral-forming basalt is apparently connected under the sea with Ireland’s Giant’s Causeway. This is interesting considering that legends and folklore speak of a race of giants, red-haired, blue-eyed giants, that used to walk the land. More information on the Island of Staffa can be found here.

The three islands then (Iona, Staffa, and the Isle of Women) form a sacred triangle of clear, pure regenerative energies. In fact, one can tune in to the triple spiral energy that the three islands create together, and feel immensely rejuvenated. 

I was awestruck when Davie casually pointed out the Isle of Women as we ferried along comfortably in his boat on our way to Staffa. I began to imagine the ancient ways of women Druidesses, and how they may have lived out their days on this magical island. 

Indeed, the island itself seemed to have a unique vibration that attracted me and called out to me. I was very excited to discover its existence, and intrigued that after all the years of visiting Iona, I had not even noticed the Isle of Women. I knew with certainty that I would have to find a way to visit it one day! 

So in 2014, when I returned to Iona to continue writing about my experiences on the island, I had the immense great fortunate and once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to be ferried to the island by Neil, a kind and engaging young Iona man who seemed himself to have stepped out of the past, showing such chivalry, and kindness. He radiated a keen love of life and adventure. That he was willing to ferry me to the silent and rarely visited Isle of Women was such a gracious demonstration of his generosity of spirit. And for that, I will always, always be grateful.  

The following is some of what I wrote in my journal that day on September 12, 2014, when I visited the Isle of Women:

We crossed the Sound of Iona on an extraordinarily warm and bright sunny day. The sea was unusually soft and calm, and Neil’s masterful skill and confidence as a seaman and a sailor put me into a relaxed state. I was so excited to be going to the Isle of Women, and to be able to explore it myself, privately. I could hardly believe that I was actually going to the mysterious little island that hardly any one even knew existed, let alone visited.

The island itself is tucked away close to the west side of Mull, and it can appear from the viewing point of Iona to be just part of the isle of Mull itself. In that regard, it tends to be invisible, or not really noticeable or note-worthy (at first glance!) as it blends in so easily with Mull, when looking across at it from Iona. Those features of its geographic location have somehow ensured that it has remained hidden, elusive, and incognito all this time!

Neil pointed out how vitally important the Isle of Women is to the existence of present-day Iona, as a community. The Isle of Women provides the only sheltered anchorage for the ferry and other boats, including the fishing boats. That was fascinating to me, as it had never occurred to me that, of course, the ferry and the boats need shelter from the storms of the sea. The island may have seemed hidden to me all these years, but it was, in fact, a very important and essential feature to the sustenance of Iona, and played a significant role in facilitating the millions of visitors who have taken the ferry over the years to visit Iona.

As Neil’s fishing boat approached the towering rock faces of the south end of the Isle of Women, we soon turned left into the Bull Hole, which is the name given to the waterway between the Isle of Women and the Isle of Mull. The beauty and the grandeur of the pink rock at the southern tip took my breath away. And for a moment, I pondered on the name, Bull Hole, and wondered what past events might have led to it being called that. The bull and bull-deity symbolism have a strong and frequent presence in Celtic myths and legends. It is also believed that Druids sacrificed bulls as part of a ritual of mistletoe gathering from Oak trees (as written about by the Roman writer, ‘Pliny, the Elder’). 

There is no easy access or landing place for a small boat to moor on the island, but Neil had scouted out the best possible landing place and he kindly prepared me to anticipate the bump and then the noise of the boat’s keel as it gently landed across the rocks under the sea.

I felt protected and completely safe in the expert and kind hands of Neil as he carefully helped me climb out of the boat, and pointed to spots in the water where I could place each foot, where it wouldn’t be too deep. He had recommended that I wear high rubber boots, and it was clear that access to the island would have been impossible without those rubber boots! I was so grateful for his foresight, kindness, and patience. He seemed like a ‘knight in shining armour’ to me.

We arranged a time that Neil would pick me up at the island and I was excited to begin my adventure. I had two hours of continuing bliss!

I waded carefully through the mounds of seaweed, and at last set foot on the Isle of Women. I had been keeping my eyes down concentrating as I made my way one step at a time through the water to the land. When I finally looked up for the first time, once again my breath was taken away as I saw before me the most incredible welcoming port of rocks emerging straight out of the sand.

Straight ahead in front of me, the rocks appeared like an extraordinary gathering of ‘rock people’, and they were welcoming me to their home! I could feel the spirits of the rocks. I greeted them and thanked them for their welcome. I felt that I was entering a new fairyland of sorts, where the spirits of the land were in clear communication. And thus began my foray into the magical purity of this enchanted isle. 

The crushed pink feldspar granite stones contributed to the creation of a unique pinkish crystal glow, and the broken ones crunched between my feet with their ancient calling of the sea and the wind.

I was excited beyond words as I carefully and reverently made my way through the narrow opening to ‘the other world’, knowing that at some level I was crossing over a threshold into the still-strong vibration of an ancient sacred site.

As I walked and took photos, my thoughts turned to the women who had lived here so long ago.

Who were they, and what was the nature of their lives here?” 

Archeological evidence from the site of St. Ronan’s church, within the Augustinian Nunnery grounds on Iona, indicates that women lived and worked at that particular site on Iona for a very long time, long before the current visible ruins of the Nunnery that date from approximately 1200 CE. 

Not only were there women living on Iona in the 600s CE, there are indications from the most recent archeological dig that women lived on Iona even earlier than that. All skeletal remains examined on the Nunnery grounds, going back hundreds of years even before Columba arrived on Iona from Ireland, belonged only to women.

The women that lived on Iona well before Columba arrived, would have been primarily women Druidesses of the priest and priestess class of the Celtic Druid tradition. There were also women Culdees. Iona’s special and unique role as a place for spiritual education is older than one could ever imagine.

It is believed that Iona had been, prior to Columba’s arrival, the site of a very well known college of learning and education for the scholarly priest and priestess class of Celtic Druids, and that people travelled from afar to attend and learn from the well-respected and scholarly Druids there. 

We know that one of the oldest names for Iona was ‘Isla na Druidhneach’ – Isle of the Druids. We know, too, that prior to the earliest Christian teachings that Columba brought from Ireland, it is thought that the Druids (at least, the Druids on Iona) already knew of the Christ teachings, and that some of the Druids recognized, embraced, and integrated the teachings. They had indeed anticipated the Royal Virgin Birth through their own capacities as astrologers, divination and oracular adepts, and travellers through the astral planes of the cosmos.

Celtic Christianity itself can be seen to be representative of both the very earliest teachings of Christianity in Britain (prior to the Roman invasions) and the well-developed nature-based and philosophical world-view of the priestly class of the Druids. The priestly class of Druids, both males and females, had their roots in Ireland, Scotland, and Wales.

The Celtic Cross is unique among crosses with its beautiful circle. The circle is a universal symbol of unity and sacredness, infinity, eternity, and timelessness. The circle is represented by the many circles of standing stones that were a key feature of Druidic rites and ceremonies. The Celtic Cross can be seen as the strongest expression of the balance and blend of the ‘Old Ways’ of the Celtic Druids and Druidesses (the circle) and the ‘New Christian’ Way (represented by the cross).

Ireland was historically a stronghold of Celtic Druidism, and Columba would have certainly been very familiar with their teachings, being of Irish royal lineage himself and the royal lineages the Celts at the time included Druids as advisors to the kings and queens of the land.

There is also a story that St. Columba had banished the women that he had found on Iona, saying something to the effect of, ‘Where there is a cow, there is a woman; where there is a woman, there is mischief.”

I think that it is possible that something was lost in translation regarding that story. First of all, Celtic women had almost complete equality as men. They could own property in their own name, and they were allowed to initiate divorce from a husband. The Goddess culture of Brighid was still strong amongst the people. And in addition, St. Columba and his dedicated group of Christians were known to have advocated on behalf of women in changing certain laws for their benefit. 

It is impossible to know for sure what was going on. But we do know that the women Celtic priestesses, Druidesses, were known to gather in remote places, usually on smaller islands adjacent to larger islands, to engage in their own rites and earth-centred ceremonies, to pass on their wise-women teachings on birthing, herbal medicine ways, and death and dying. Women had esteemed roles as keepers of special knowledge and ancestral wisdom that assisted and supported the healthy continuance of their clans and communities. They also had roles in the judiciary and planning for the clans. They were respected, esteemed, powerful and strong women.

Was it possible that this ‘Isle of Women’ that I was walking on so reverently had been an ancient part of the Druidic college of teaching that was centred on Iona? Perhaps it was. There is no archeological evidence that supports the idea that there were any individuals who lived on the island, but that is primarily because no extensive study has every been done. Like much of the history of women, there are serious gaps in knowledge. It is ‘his-story’, after all. And this website sheds some light on ‘her-story’, the divine feminine Spirit of Iona.

There is nowhere else on Earth that I have experienced such a quality of magical radiance. It was so very, very pure. It is hard to describe differences in energetic manifestations. This place, or at least the small area of the island that I was able to explore, had the energetic qualities of a beautiful and delicate garden. The delicate eco-system seemed to sing its perfection, like a garden of Spirit joyously creating and re-creating herself. 

Now, when I think back to that magical experience of exploring the Isle of Women, I feel so very blessed to have had the opportunity that I had. The special quality of love and light that I experienced on the island is something so strong that it remains a presence within me still. Thank you, Neil, for giving me such a special and rare opportunity.