As late as 1594 the three great mausoleums of the kings were to be seen, with the following inscriptions:
Tumulus regum Scotiæ,
Tumulus regum Hiberniæ,
Tumulus regum Norwegiæ.
But these have also disappeared, and nothing remains but the site. Here were buried forty-eight kings of Scotland, four kings of Ireland, and eight kings of Norway; and it is even said that one of the kings of France found here a last resting-place. Macbeth closes the line of Scottish kings who were buried in Iona. His successor, Malcolm Canmore, chose the Abbey of Dunfermline as the royal cemetery. Shakspere does not fail to send Duncan’s body to Iona:
“Rosse. Where is Duncan’s body?
Macduff. Carried to Colmekill,
The sacred storehouse of his predecessors,
And guardian of their bones.”
There are still many tombs in this cemetery, most of which are covered with slabs of blue stone upon which figures are sculptured in relief. Here a bishop or an abbot, in cope and mitre, holds the pastoral staff of authority, and by his side lies some famous chieftain