toddYoungONLINE presents Young Tales, Tales for the Young and the Young at Heart. Today's story: Bullfinch's Mythology — The Druids and the Isle of Iona.

Ancient Druids guard sacred oaks and fires, performing rites like the harvest of mistletoe and celebrating Beltane and Samhain. Their wisdom is handed down in song and spoke of the heavens, until Roman conquest pushed them west to the remote isle of Iona.

There Columba and his monks brought a new light, building a monastery that became a center of learning and faith. Though later raided and fallen to time, Iona’s stones hold the echoes of both the old Druid rites and the Christian hymns that followed.