Iona's monks may have started one of the most famous illuminated manuscripts in existence before Viking raids forced the project, or at least its safekeeping, to move to Ireland.
A manuscript that may have started here
Scholars generally believe the Book of Kells, one of the most elaborately illuminated manuscripts to survive from early medieval Europe, was either begun at Iona's monastery or produced by scribes closely connected to it, with the manuscript moved to the monastery at Kells in Ireland at some point, plausibly for safekeeping from the same Viking threat that repeatedly struck the island community directly.
Repeated raids
Iona suffered a series of devastating Viking raids beginning in 795 and continuing over subsequent decades, including an 806 attack in which a significant number of monks were killed, violence severe enough that the community eventually relocated much of its population and its most valuable relics and manuscripts to safer inland locations in Ireland and Scotland.
As this entry's companion article covers
Saint Columba's founding of the monastery and its role as a base for the Christianisation of Scotland and northern Britain are addressed directly in this entry's companion article rather than repeated here.