Volume 3 - Electric Scotland

SHIANT ISLES. 327
object, the columnar faces being here diminished in
length by some rude rocks that skirt their feet ; nor is
there any thing very striking in the forms of its cliffs.
On the western side of Eilan na Kily, the shore is low
and rocky : but on the opposite quarter it is bounded by
columnar cliffs. These, however grand, are eclipsed by
the superior beauties of Gariveilan ;
yet they afford some
fine scenes, enlivened by the myriads of sea fowl, which
in these islands, as at Ailsa, almost deafen the spectator
with their ceaseless clamour, and darken the air with
their flight It was impossible here not to think of Virgil's
lively description of the flight of sea birds; so exactly
do they resemble a cloud of leaves scattered by an au-
tumnal storm.
A ruinous square enclosure, the remains of a house,
lies on the western side of this island, whence its name—
the Island of the Cell. The smallness of this building
renders it probable that it was really the cell of some
ascetic monk, or hermit; personages which are known to
have existed in several parts of the Western Islands.
But it may have been the chapel; as Martin says that
there was one here dedicated to the Virgin. That many
of these establishments, perhaps all, were dependant on
lona, is more than probable; and some of them still,
perhaps, prove it, from their being dedicated to St. Co-
lumba. But it does not appear that the principle of so-
litary retirement formed any part of Columba's own rules ;
and it is more probable that all these outstanding esta-
blishments were dependencies on that monastery, after
it had fallen into the possession of the llomish regular
clergy. This supposition is indeed confirmed by the
want of marks of high antiquity in the buildings that re-
main; and, in many cases, as in St. Cormac's Isle and
others, by architectural evidence still more unquestion-
able. These hermits appear to have remained, in some