Snizort Cathedral, was a small cathedral church located on an island (St Columba's Isle, Gaelic: Eilean Chaluim Chille) in the River Snizort, near the mouth of Loch Snizort

Loch Snizort

Loch Snizort is a sea loch in the northwest of the Isle of Skye between the Waternish and Trotternish peninsulas. It is fed by the River Snizort, originating in the hills east of Bracadale. The mouth of Loch Snizort gives access to the lower Minch and contains the Ascrib Islands.Sea fishing in...

 on the Scottish island of Skye

Skye

Skye or the Isle of Skye is the largest and most northerly island in the Inner Hebrides of Scotland. The island's peninsulas radiate out from a mountainous centre dominated by the Cuillin hills...

. Also referred to as Church of St Columba or Skeabost, it was founded under the authority of the Archbishop of Nidaros

Archdiocese of Nidaros

The Archdiocese of Nidaros was the metropolitan see covering Norway in the later Middle Ages. The see was the Nidaros Cathedral, in the city of Nidaros...

 (Trondheim) in Norway. Amongst its more famous bishops was Wimund

Wimund

Wimund was a bishop who became a sea-faring war-lord adventurer in the years after 1147. His story is passed down to us by 12th-century English historian William of Newburgh in his Historia rerum anglicarum, Book I, Chapter 24 entitled "Of bishop Wimund, his life unbecoming a bishop, and how he was...

, who according to William of Newburgh

William of Newburgh

William of Newburgh or Newbury , also known as William Parvus, was a 12th-century English historian and Augustinian canon from Bridlington, Yorkshire.-Biography:...

 became a sea-faring war-lord adventurer in the years after 1147".

According to tradition, the cathedral was founded near a site where Columba

Columba

Saint Columba —also known as Colum Cille , Colm Cille , Calum Cille and Kolban or Kolbjørn —was a Gaelic Irish missionary monk who propagated Christianity among the Picts during the Early Medieval Period...

 had preached from a rock, which later became known as St. Columba's rock. The site may originally have been a pagan Pict

PICT

PICT is a graphics file format introduced on the original Apple Macintosh computer as its standard metafile format. It allows the interchange of graphics , and some limited text support, between Mac applications, and was the native graphics format of QuickDraw.The original version, PICT 1, was...

ish centre, but by the time of Columba's arrival may have converted to a Pictish Christian establishment. Over the early centuries of the 2nd Millennium it gained importance as the Kilmuir monastery declined and by the 14th Century was referred to as the Metropolitan Church of the Isles, being the principal seat for the Bishops of the Isles

Bishop of the Isles

The Bishop of the Isles or Bishop of Sodor was the ecclesiastical head of the Diocese of Sodor, one of Scotland's thirteen medieval bishoprics. The bishopric, encompasing both the Hebrides and Mann, probably traces its origins as an ecclesiastical unity to the careers of Olaf, King of the Isles,...

 until power was transferred to Iona Abbey

Iona Abbey

Iona Abbey is located on the Isle of Iona, just off the Isle of Mull on the West Coast of Scotland. It is one of the oldest and most important religious centres in Western Europe. The abbey was a focal point for the spread of Christianity throughout Scotland and marks the foundation of a monastic...

. It was extant until at least 1501, but destroyed during the Scottish reformation

Scottish Reformation

The Scottish Reformation was Scotland's formal break with the Papacy in 1560, and the events surrounding this. It was part of the wider European Protestant Reformation; and in Scotland's case culminated ecclesiastically in the re-establishment of the church along Reformed lines, and politically in...

, although remains are still visible.