St Ronan’s arrival on North Rona

The tale of how Ronan, the 7th century saint came to Rona was handed down in the Ness oral tradition by 84-year-old Angus Gunn, who actually lived in this now uninhabited rocky outcrop rising precipitously sixty miles into the Atlantic.

Ronan had first come to Eorobay in Lewis but found people so quarrelsome that he prayed to be removed to another place. ‘An angel came and told him to go down to the Laimhrig (the landing rock)… Ronan arose and hurried down to the shore, shaking the dust of Eorabay off his feet, taking nothing but his Pollaire containing the Book on his breast. There, stretched along the rock, was the great Cionaran-cro (whale eating sea monster), waiting for him, his great eyes shining like two stars of night. Ronan sat on the back of the Cionaran-cro, and it flew with him over the sea, usually wild as the mountains, now smooth as the plains, and in the twinkling of two eyes, they reached [Rònaigh (Rona)] the remote isle of the ocean....Ronan found the place full of ‘nathair bheumnaich, gribh inich, nathair nimhe, agus leomhain bheucaich’ (biting adders, taloned griffins, poisonous snakes, and roaring lions).

But all the beasts of the island fled before the holy Ronan and rushed backwards over the rocks into the sea. And that is how the rocks of the island are grooved and scratched and lined …[Then] the good Ronan built himself a prayer-house…where [at last] he could say his prayers in peace.'

More information on visiting the area can be found here.