The remains were discovered in 1957, but were just recently accurately dated.
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St. Columba, known in Gaelic as Colum Cille, “the dove of the church”, arrived on the island of Iona, in the western coasts of Scotland, in the year 563. Considered one of the Twelve Apostles of Ireland, he was the founder of the great Abbey of Iona, which became one of the most important religious, cultural and political centers of the region for centuries.
According to BBC, using radiocarbon dating processes, archaeologists have finally been able to identify the charred remains of a hut found in 1957 in the place in which, according to tradition, the saint’s cell stood. The place is called Tòrr an Aba, “the abbot’s mound”.
The test results on these pieces of burnt wood date them as being almost 1500 years old. These pieces would have belonged to St. Columba’s cell, where the saint worked, prayed and died.
Read the whole BBC article here.
