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In Search of Angels

Travels to the Edge of the World

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In Search of Angels

By: Alistair Moffat
Narrated by: Derek Perkins
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About this listen

Fourteen centuries ago, Irish saints brought the Word of God to the Hebrides and Scotland's Atlantic shore. These "white martyrs" sought solitude, remoteness, even harshness, in places apart from the world where they could fast, pray, and move closer to an understanding of God: places where they could see angels. Columba, who founded the famous monastery at Iona, was the most well-known of these courageous men who rowed their curraghs towards danger and uncertainty in a pagan land, but the many others are now largely forgotten by history.

In this book, Alistair Moffat journeys from the island of Eileach an Naoimh at the mouth of the Firth of Lorne to Lismore, Iona, and then north to Applecross, searching for traces of these extraordinary men. He finds them not often in any tangible remains, but in the spirit of the islands and remote places where they passed their exemplary lives. Brendan, Moluag, Columba, Maelrubha, and others brought the Gaelic language and echoes of how the saints saw their world can still be heard in its cadences. And the tradition of great piety endures.

©2020 Alistair Moffat (P)2023 Tantor Christianity Europe Great Britain History
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It is good, as a historical journey through the holy places of the west coast of Scotland. I am from the Highlands and I love ready of the history of my people.

Moffat is personal and engaging. The story is wide ranging and brings in history from Ireland Italy France and of course the Holy Land too.

However, the narrator drove me mad. He seems entirely unfamiliar with Gaelic pronunciation, he can’t even pronounce the differing ways the word Gaelic is pronounced in Scotland and Ireland (Gaa-lic v Gay-lic respectively).

Macleans Hallig is recounted at one point entirely without the correct expression, and we returned to the prose without any pause.

Despite these criticisms I generally enjoyed the book.

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