Baptismal Font, St.Columba's Abbey Church, Iona, Argyll & Bute, Scotland.
Posted by: 
greysman
N 56° 20.095 W 006° 23.512
29V E 661232 N 6246411
A large font partially made of Iona marble.
Waymark Code: WMHZDG
Location: Northern Scotland, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 08/31/2013
Views: 2
The Font can be found just inside the west door of this Abbey Church, at the main entrance where the unbaptised would be welcomed into the family of the Church of God. It is made of sandstone, square in plan and chamfered towards the bottom and supported on five columns of Iona Marble. It is carved with Christian and celtic symbols and images, the whole mounted on a square chamfered base on a large step, these also of Iona marble.
The base at the western end carries the inscription:-
To the Glory of God
and in Memory of
Theodore Marshall D.D.
Moderator MCMVIII
Iona marble comes from a small vein of marble at the southern end of the island which is a creamy white with green veins of various intensity running through. It was mined from about 1745, initially by the Earl of Breadalbane when he founded the Marble and Slate Company of Netherlorn.
An official opening in the late 1700s by the Duke of Argyll was abortive as the marble was difficult to extract and transport was uneconomical.
A further failed enterprise by the Argyll Quarry Company in the 1800s hoped to extract the stone and ship it from the island on an industrial scale but the remote and rocky location proved too hazardous for shipping. The remains of the jetty can still be seen.
A final attempt was made and the quarry reopened again in 1907 but it closed for the last time at the end of World War I with the abandonment of much of the machinery used in the quarrying.
The Rev. Theodore Marshall was born on 8th March 1843 and died suddenly in a railway carriage while travelling between Crieff and Perth on 1st May 1909.
He had been elected Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in 1908, hence the date on the font commemorating his election.