IN THIS attractively written book, the Scottish television producer and author Alistair Moffat describes his travels to four remote Scottish locations in the footsteps of early Irish saints. Three of them are islands: Eileach an Naoimh, in the Firth of Lorn, with its beehive cells and associations with Brendan; Lismore, “the great garden” between Oban and Mull where Moluag had his base; and Iona, the Isle of the Yew Tree, for ever linked with Columba. His fourth destination is the peninsula of Applecross, in the north-west Highlands, evangelised by Maelrubha, the “red priest”.

Although he professes no strong religious faith himself, Moffat is fascinated by what led Celtic monks to embark on their lives of exile and asceticism, and he writes sensitively and informatively about early monasticism, the desert tradition, and its application in the Highlands and Islands of what would become Scotland.

His book is also full of fascinating asides on more recent spiritual and religious currents and controversies in these regions, and makes for a satisfying and compelling travelogue, recommended for anyone keen to know more about the places where these solitary and contemplative souls combined lives of prayerful meditation and evangelism. As he reflects on the last page, “their monasteries have been long lost and reclaimed by the grass and the heather, their stories destroyed or forgotten, their names barely remembered, but the influence of the old saints of the west has not yet fled.”

This book brings them wonderfully to life again.

The Revd Dr Ian Bradley is Emeritus Professor of Cultural and Spiritual History at the University of St Andrews.

Islands of the Evening: Journeys to the edge of the world
Alistair Moffat
Birlinn £10.99
(978-1-78027-801-8)
Church Times Bookshop £9.89