The Picts (Picti) were the dominant power in northern Britain for more than five hundred years, but remarkably little is known about them. The earliest, extant, mention of the Picts is in a panegyric on Constantius Chlorus (western Caesar 293-305, western Augustus 305-306). The panegyric (delivered in 297, and usually attributed to Eumenius) makes a poetic reference to "the hitherto semi-naked Picts and Hibernians [Irish]". In 310, another panegyric, written on Constantine by an unknown author, mentions "the Caledones and other Picts".

Marjorie O. Anderson, in 'Kings and Kingship in Early Scotland', writes: "This is the only reading for which there is manuscript authority. The often-cited "alternative reading" ... "Caledones, Picts and others", seems to have originated as a quite unnecessary emendation by Franz Eyssenhardt in 1867. It was adopted in the edition by Emil Baehrens (father of W. Baehrens) in 1874, which was unfortunately followed by Holder in his article Picti... Holder's influence still perpetuates the idea that Caledones and Picti were the names of two distinct though related peoples."

The reliable Roman historian Ammianus Marcellinus, while writing about the so called Barbarian Conspiracy, mentions two tribes of Picts: the Dicalydones and the Verturiones. Traditionally, the name Pict is said to mean 'painted people' (having the same Latin root as the English word 'picture'). The poet Claudian (Claudius Claudianus), writing at the very beginning of the fifth century, talks of Britain "dressed in the skin of a Caledonian beast, her cheeks tattooed [literally 'iron-marked'], a sea-blue mantle sweeping over her footsteps like the surge of Ocean", and of "the lifeless patterns tattooed on dying Picts". Spanish bishop and encyclopedist, Isidore of Seville (c.560-636) claims that: "The race of the Picts has a name derived from the appearance of their bodies. These are played upon by a needle working with small pricks and by the squeezed-out sap of a native plant, so that they bear the resultant marks according to the personal rank of the individual, their painted limbs being tattooed to show their high birth."

However, the more sceptical suggest that, since it is unlikely that such comments were founded on first hand knowledge, they were perpetuating myths, based on the general perception of 'barbarian' practices, allied to Julius Caesar's observation that the inhabitants of Britain used woad as blue war paint. Certainly, the British monk Gildas, writing in the 540's, makes no mention of tattoos in his disparaging references to the Picts. The current consensus of opinion is that the Latin word 'Picti' is actually derived from their own native name, and that they were a federation of preexisting tribal groups occupying territory north of the Forth/Clyde line. However, their origins have attracted much legend, and are still the subject of a great deal of speculation. Bede recorded that: "... the nation of the Picts, from Scythia [by which it is generally agreed that Bede means Scandinavia], as is reported, putting to sea, in a few long ships, were driven by the winds beyond the shores of Britain, and arrived on the northern coast of Ireland, where, finding the nation of the Scots, they begged to be allowed to settle among them, but could not succeed in obtaining their request... The Scots answered that the island could not contain them both; but "We can give you good advice," said they, "what to do; we know there is another island, not far from ours, to the eastward, which we often see at a distance, when the days are clear. if you will go thither, you will obtain settlements; or, if they should oppose you, you shall have our assistance." The Picts, accordingly, sailing over into Britain, began to inhabit the northern parts thereof, for the Britons were possessed of the southern... In process of time, Britain, besides the Britons and the Picts, received a third nation the Scots, who, migrating from Ireland ... either by fair means, or by force of arms, secured to themselves those settlements among the Picts which they still possess."

Edward Gibbon, in the 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire' (published 1776-88), was of the opinion that: "The inhabitants of that northern region were divided, as early as the reign of Constantine, between the two great tribes of the Scots and of the Picts ... The former were the men of the hills, and the latter those of the plain... the love of arms and rapine was still the ruling passion of the Picts, and their warriors, who stripped themselves for a day of battle, were distinguished, in the eyes of the Romans, by the strange fashion of painting their naked bodies with gaudy colours and fantastic figures... The highlanders were condemned to the occupations of shepherds and hunters; and as they seldom were fixed to any permanent habitation, they acquired the expressive name of Scots, which, in the Celtic tongue, is said to be equivalent to that of wanderers, or vagrants... It is probable that in some remote period of antiquity the fertile plains of Ulster received a colony of hungry Scots; and that the strangers of the North, who had dared to encounter the arms of the legions, spread their conquests over the savage and unwarlike natives of a solitary island. It is certain that, in the declining age of the Roman empire, Caledonia, Ireland, and the Isle of Man were inhabited by the Scots, and that the kindred tribes, who were often associated in military enterprise, were deeply affected by the various accidents of their mutual fortunes. They long cherished the lively tradition of their common name and origin: and the missionaries of the Isle of Saints, who diffused the light of Christianity over North Britain, established the vain opinion that their Irish countrymen were the natural, as well as spiritual, fathers of the Scottish race. The loose and obscure tradition has been preserved by the venerable Bede, who scattered some rays of light over the darkness of the eighth century.

On this slight foundation a huge superstructure of fable was gradually reared by the bards and the monks; two orders of men who equally abused the privilege of fiction. The Scottish nation, with mistaken pride, adopted their Irish genealogy ..." However, in a footnote, Gibbon admits that: "The Irish descent of the Scots has been revived, in the last moments of its decay, and strenuously supported, by the Rev. Mr. Whitaker." It was actually the theory that the Scots (Scoti) originated in Ireland which prevailed - it is thought that the name may mean something along the lines of 'raiders' or 'pirates'. In any event, people who would have been recognised as Scots may have been living in Argyll as early as c.300.

The Unification of the Highlands

Conal, the fifth king of the Scots in Argyle, the kinsman of St. Columba, and under whose auspices he entered on the work of conversion, and to whom it is said he was indebted for Hy, died in 571. His successor Aidan went over to Iona in 574, and was there ordained and inaugurated by the Abbot according to the ceremonial of the liber vitreus, the cover of which is supposed to have been encrusted with crystal.

To return to the history of the Picts, we have already observed that little is known of Pictish history for more than one hundred years after the Roman abdication; and even up to the union of Picts and Scots, the materials for the history of both are about as scarce as they could possibly be, consisting mostly of meagre chronicles containing the names of kings, the dates of their accession and death, and occasionally the names of battles and of the contending nations. Scotland during this period appears to have been the scene of unceasing war between the Scots, Picts, Britons of Strathclyde, English, and Danes, the two first being continually at strife not only with each other but among themselves. We shall endeavour to give, as clearly and as faithfully as possible, the main reliable facts in the history of the Scots and Picts until the union of these two nations.

The reign of Brude was distinguished by many warlike exploits, but above all, as we have seen, by his conversion and that of his people to Christianity, which indeed formed his greatest glory. His chief contests were with the Scoto-Irish or Dalriads, whom he defeated in 557, and slew Gauran their king. Brude died in 586, and for several ages his successors carried on a petty system of warfare, partly foreign and partly domestic. Passing over a domerstic conflict, at Lindores in 621, under Kenneth, son of Luthrin, we must notice the important battle of Dun-Nechtan, fought in 685, between the Picts under Brude, the son of Bili, and the Saxons, under the Northumbrian Egfrid. The Saxon king, it is said, greedy of conquest, attacked the Picts without provication, and against the advice of his court. Crossing the Forth from Lothian, he entered Srtathearn and penetrated through the defiles of the Pictish kingdom, leaving fire and desolation in his train. His career was stopt at Dun-Nechtan, the hill of Nechtan, a hill in the parish of Dunnichen, about the centre of Forfarshire; and by a neighbouring lake, long known by the name of Nechtan's mere, a short distance east from the town of Forfar, did Egfrid and his Saxons fall before Brude and his exasperated Picts. This was a sad blow to the Northumberland power; yet the Northunbrians, in 699, under Berht, an able leader, again ventured to try their strength with the Picts, when they were once more defeated by Brude, the son of Dereli, who had recently mounted the Pictish throne.

The wars between the Picts and Northumbrians were succeeded by various contests for power among the Pictish princes, which gave rise to a civil war. Ungus, honoured by the Irish Annalists with the title of great, and Elpin, at the head of their respective partisans, tried their strength at Monacrib, supposed by some to be Moncrieff in Strathearn, in the year 727, when the latter was defeated; and the conflict was renewed at Duncrei (Crieff), when victory declared a second time against Elpin, who was obliged to flee from the hostilities of Ungus. Nechtan next tried his strength with Ungus, in 728, at a place called Monacurna by the Annalists - possibly Moncur in the Carse of Gowrie - but he was defeated, and many of his followers perished. Talorgan, the son of Congus, was defeated by Brude, the son of Ungus, in 730, and in the same year the Picts appear to have entered into a treaty of peace with the English nation.

The victorious Ungus commenced hostlilities against the Dalriads, or Scoto-Irish, in the year 736, and appears to have got the better of the latter. The Scots were again worsted in another battle in 740 by Ungus, who in the same year repulsed an attack of the Northumbrians under Eadbert. In the year 750 he defeated the Britons of the Cumbrian kingdom in the battle of Cato or Cath-o, in which his brother Talorgan was killed. Ungus, who appears to have been a powerful and able monarch, but whom Bede characterizes as having conducted himself "with bloody wickedness, a tyratn and an executioner", died about 760. A doubtful victory was gained by Ciniod, or Kenneth, the Pictish king, over Aodh-fin, the Scottish king, in 767. Constantine, having overcome Conal, the son of Tarla, in 789, succeeded him in the throne.

Up to this period the Norsemen from Scandinavia, or the Vikingr, i.e. men of the voes or bays, as they were termed, had confined their ravages to the Baltic; but, in the year 787 they for the first ime appeared on the east coast of England. Some years afterwards they found their way to the Caledonian shores, and in 795 made their first attack on Iona, which frequently afterwards, along with the rest of the Hebrides, suffered grievously from their ravages. In 839 the Vikingr entered the Pictish territories. A murderous conflict ensued between them and the Picts under Uen their king, in which both he and his only brother Bran, as well as many of the Pictish chiefs, fell. This event, no doubt, hastened the downfall of the Pictish monarchy; and as the Picts were unable to resist the arms of Kenneth, the Scottish king, he carried into execution, in the year 843, a project he had long entertained, of uniting the Scots and Picts, and placing both crowns on his head. That anything like a total extermination of the Picts took place is now generally discredited, although doubtless there was great slaughter both of princes and people. Skene asserts indeed that it was only the Southern Picts who became subject to Kenneth, the Northern Picts remaining for long afterwards independent of, but sometimes in alliance with, the Scots. This is substancially the opinion of Mr E.W. Robertson, who says, "the modern shires of Perth, Fife, Stirling, and Dumbarton, with the greater part of the county of Argyle, may be said to have formed the actual Scottish kingdom to with Kenneth succeeded". The Picts were recognised as a distict people even in the tenth century, but before the twelfth they lost their characteristic nominal distinction by being amalgamated with the Scots, their conquerors.

The Scoto-Irish after their arrival in Argle did not long continue under the seperate authority of the three brothers, Lorn, Fergus, and Angus. They were said to have been very far advanced in life before leaving Ireland, and the Irish chroniclers assert that St. Patrick gave them his benediction before his death, in the year 493. The statement as to their advanced age derives some support from their speedy demise after they had laid the foundations of their settlements, and of a new dynasty of kings destined to rule over the kingdom of Scotland. Angus was the first who died, leaving a son, Muredach, who succeeded him in the small government of Ila. After the death of Lorn the eldest brother, Fergus, the last survivor, became the sole monarch of the Scoto-Irish; but he did not long enjoy the sovereignty, for he died in 506.

Fergus was succeeded by his son Domangart, or Dongardus, who died in 511, after a short but troubled reign of about five years. His two sons Comgal and Gabhran or Gauran, successively enjoyed his authority. Comgal had a peaceful reign of four and twenty years, during which he extended his settlements. He left a son named Conal, but Gauran his brother, notwithstanding, ascended the throne in the year 535 without opposition. Gauran reigned two and twenty years, and, as we have already observed, was slain in a battle with the Picts under Bridei their king.

Conal, the son of Comgal, then succeeded in 557, and closed a reign of fourteen years in 571. It was during his reign that Columba's mission to the Picts took place. A civil war ensued between Aodgan or Aidan, the son of Gauran, and Duncha or Duncan, the son of Conal, for the vacant corwn, the claim to which was decided on the bloody field of Loro or Loco in Kintyre in 575, where Duncha was slain. Aidan, the son of Gauran, had been formally inaugriated by St. Columba in Iona, in 574. In the time of Aidan there were frequent wars between the Dalriads and the English Saxons. Many battles were fought in which the Scots were generally defeated, the principal being that of Degsastan or Dalston near Carlisle, in 603, in which nearly the whole of the Scottish army was defeated. The wars with the Saxons weakened the power of the Dalriads very considerably, and it was not till after a long period of time that they again ventured to meet the Saxons in the field.

During a short season of repose, Aidan, attended by St. Columba, went to the celebrated council of Drum-keat in Ulster, in the year 590. In this council he claimed the principality of Dalriada, the land of his fathers, and obtained an exemption from doing homage to the kings of Ireland, which his ancestors, it would appear, had been accustomed to pay. Aidan died in 605 or 608, at the advanced age of eighty, and was buried in the church of Kil-keran, the ruins of which are still to be seen in the midst of Campbleton.

Aidan was succeeded in the throne by his son Eocha-bui, or the "yellow", who reigned sixteen years. He carried on war with the Cruithne of Ulster. After him came his brother Kenneth-Cear, or the "left-handed", who was followed by Ferchar, son of Eogan, of the race of Lorn.

Donal, surnamed breac or freckled, the son of Eocha'-bui, of the race of Gauran, succeeded Ferchar about 637. He was a warlike prince and had distinguished himself in the wars against the Cruithne of Ireland. Congal-Claon, the son of Scanlan, the king of the Cruithne in Ulster, having slain Suibne-Mean, a powerful king of Ireland, was attacked by Domnal II, supreme king of Ireland, who succeeded Suibine, and was defeated in the battle of Duncetheren, in 629. Congal sought refuge in Cantyre, and having persauded Donal-breac, the kinsman of Domnal, to join him in a war against the latter, they invaded Ireland with a heterogeneous mass of Scoto-Irish, Picts, Britons, and Saxons, commanded by Donal and his brothers. Cealach, the son of Maelcomb, the pephew of the reigning king, and as tanist or heir-apparent, the leader of his army, attacked Donal-breac in the plain of Magh Rath or Moyra in Down, in 637, and completely defeated him after an obstinate and bloody engagement. Congal, the murderer of his soverign, met his merited fate, and Donal-breac was obliged to secure his own and his army's safety by a speedy return to Cantyre. St. Columba had always endeavoured to preserve an amicable understanding between the Cruithne of Ulster and the Scoto-Irish, and his injunctions were, that they should live in constant peace; but Donal disregarded the wise advice of the saint, and paid dearly for so doing. He was not more successful in an enterprise against the Picts, having been defeated by them in the battle of Glinne Mairson, Glenmairison, or Glenmoreson, probably in West Lothian, during the year 638. He ended his days at Strath-cairmaic or Strathcarron, possibly in the neighbourhood of Falkirk, by the sword of Hoan or Owen, one of the reguliof Strathcluyd, in the year 642. His son Cathasuidh fell by the same hand in 649.

Conal II, the grandson of Conal I, who was also of the Fergusian race of Congal, next ruled over the tribes of Cantyre and Argyle; but Dungal, of the race of Lorn, having obtained the government of the tribe of Lorn, questioned the right of Conal. He did not, however, carry his pretensions far, for Conal died, in undisturbed possession of his dominions, in 652, after a reign of ten years. To Donal-duin, or the brown, son of Conal, who reigned thirteen years, succeeded Maolduin, his brother, in 665. The family feuds which had long existed between the Fergusian races of Comgal and Tauran, existed in their bitterest state during the reign of Maolduin. Domangart, the son of Donal-breac, was murdered in 672, and Conal, the son of Maolduin, was assassinated in 675.

Ferchar-fada, or the tall, apparently of the race of Lorn, and either the son or grandson of Ferchar, who died in 637, seized the reins of government upon the death of Maolduin. On the death of Ferchar, in 702, he sceptre passed again to the Fergusian race in the person of Eocha'-rineval, remarkable for his Roman nose, the son of Domangart. The reign of this prince was short and unfortunate. His sceptre was seized by Ainbhcealach, the son of Ferchar-fada, who succeeded Eocha' in 705. He was of an excellent disposition, but after reigning one year, was dethroned by his brother, Selvach, and obliged, in 706, to take refuge in Ireland. Selvach attacked the Britons of Strathcluyd, and gained two successive victories over them, the one at Longecoleth in 710, and the other at the rock of Mionuire in 716. At the end of twelve years, Ainbhcealach returned from Ireland, to regain the sceptre which his brother had by his cruelties shown himself unworthy to wield, but he perished in the battle of Finglein, perhaps Glen Fyne at the head of Loch Fyne, in 719. Selvach met a more formidable rival in Duncha-beg, who was descended from Fergus, by the line of Congal; he assumed the government of Cantyre and Argail, and confined Selvach to his family settlements of Lorn. These two princes appear to have been fairly matched in disposition and valour, and both exerted themselves for the destruction of one another, thus bringing many miseries upon their tribes. In an attempt which they made to invade the territories of each other in 719 by means of currachs, a naval combat ensued off Airdeanesbi, (probably Ardaness on the coast of Argyle), in which Selvach was overcome by Duncha; but Selvach was not subdued. The death of Duncha in 721 put an end to his designs; but Eocha' III, the son of Eocha'-rineval, the successor of Duncha, being as bent on the overthrow of Selvach as his predecessor, continued the war. The rival chiefs met at Irroisfoichne in 727, where a battle was fought, which produced nothing but irritation and distress. This lamentable state of things was put an end to by the death of Selvach in 729. This event enabled Eocha to assume the goverment of Lorn, and thus the Dalriadan kingdom which had been alternately rules by chiefs of the houses of Fergus and Lorn became again united under Eocha. He died in 733, after a reign of thirteen years, during nine of which he ruled over Cantyre and Argyle, and four over all the Dalriadic tribes.

Eocha was succeeded in the kingdom by Muredach, the son of Ainbhceallach, fo the race of Lorn. His reign was short and unfortumate. In revenge for an act of perfidy committed by Dungal, the son of Selvach, who had carried off Foria or Toria, the daughter of Brude, and the niece of Ungus, the great Pictish king, the latter, in the year 736, led his army from Strathearn, through the passes of the mountains into Lorn, which he wasted with fire and sword. He sized Duncad, in Mid-Lorn, and burned Creic, another fortress in the Ross of Mull, taking Dungal and Feradach, the two sons of Selvach, prisoners. Muredach went in pursuit of his enemy, and having overtaken him at Knock Cairpre, at Calatros, on he shores of the Linne, a battle ensued, in which the Scots were repulsed with great slaughter. Talorgan, the brother of Ungus, commanded the Picts on this occasion, and pursued the flying Scots. In this pursuit Muredach is supposed to have perished, after a reign of three years.

Eogban or Ewan, the son of Muredach, took up the fallen succession in 736, and died in 739, in which year the Dalriadic sceptre was assumed by Aodh-fin, the son of Eocha'III, and grandson of Eocha'-rineval, descended from the Fergusian race of Gauran. In 740 he measured his strength with the celebrated Ungus; but victory declared for neither, and during the remainder of Ungus's reign, he did not attempt to renew hostilities. After the death of Ungus, in 761, Aodh-fin declared war against the Picts, whose territories he entered from Upper Lorn, penetrating through the passes of Glenorchy and Breadlbane. In 767 he reached Forteviot, the Pictish capital in Strathearn, where he fought a doubtful battle with Ciniod the Pictish king. Aodh-fin died in 769, after a spendid reign of thirty years.

Fergus II, son of Aodh-fin, succeeded to the sceptre on the demise of his father, and died after an unimportant reign of three years. Selvach II, the son of Eogan, assumed the government in 772. His reign, which lasted twenty four years, presents nothing very remarkable in history.

A new soverign of a different lineage, now mounted the throne of the Scots in 796, in the person of Eocha or Auchy, the son of Aodh-fin of the Gauran race. Eocha' IV is known also by the latinized appellation of Achaius. The story of the alliance between Achaius and Charlemagne has been shown to be a fable; although it is by no means improbable that he entered into an important treaty with the Picts, by marying Urgusia, the daughter of Urguis, an alliance which, it is said, enabled his grandson Kenneth afterwards to claim and acquire the Pictish sceptre, in right of Urgusia his grandmother. Eocha died in 826, after a happy and prosperous reign of thirty years. He was succeeded by Dungal, the son of Selvach II, of the race of Lorn, being the last of that powerful family who swayed the Dalriadic sceptre. After a feeble but stormy reign of seven years, he died in 833.

Alpin, the last of the Scoto-Irish kings, and the son of Eocha IV and of Urgusia, now mounted the throne. He was killed in 836, near the site of Laicht castle, on the ridge which seperates Kyle from Galloway. The fiction that Alpin fell in a battle with the Picts, when asserting his right to the Pictish throne, had long been exploded.

In 836 Kenneth, the son of Alpine, succeeded his father. He was a prince of a warlike disposition, and of great vigour of mind and body. He avenged the death of his father by frequent inroads among the people dwelling to the south of the Clyde; but the great glory of his reign consists in his achievements against the Picts, which secured for him and his posterity the Pictish septre. The Pictish power had, previous to the period of Kenneth's accession, been greatly enfeebled by the inroads of the Danisg Vikingr; but it was not till after the death of Uven, the Pictish king, in 839, after a distracted reign of three years, that Kenneth made any serious attempt to seize the Pictish disdem. On the accession of Wred, Kenneth, in accordance with the principle of succession said by Bede to have prevailed among the Picts, claimed the Pictish throne in right of Urgusia, his grandmother; Wred died in 842, and after an arduous struggle, Kenneth wrested the sceptre from Bred, his successor, in 843, after he had reigned over the Scots seven years.

Burton thinks there can be no doubt that the two countries were prepared for a fusion whenever a proper opportunity offered, but that this was on account of a matrimonial alliance between the two royal houses cannot with certainty be ascertained. As we have said already, it is extremely improbable that Kenneth gained his supremency by extermination. The Picts certainly appear to have suffered severe defeat, but the likelihood is that after Kenneth succeeded to the throne, a gradual fusion of the two people took place, so that in course of time they became essentially one speaking language, oveying the same laws, and following the same manners and customs. If we knew for certain to what race the Picts belonged, and what language they spoke, it might help us not a little to understand the nature and extent of the amalgamation; but as we know so little about these, and as the chroniclers, in speaking of this event, are so enigmatical and meagre, we are left almost entirely to conjecture. We are certain, at any rate, that from some cause or other, the kings of the Dalriadic Scots, about the middle of the 9th century, obtained supremancy over at least the Southern Picts, who from that time forward ceased to be a seperate nation.

Sponsors

Warefare

The Roman Invasion

The new invaders, the Romans, were of course very different from previous settlers. In the first place they weren't really settlers at all, and had not been prompted to come to Britain by land hunger, ambition or flight from even more ferocious intruders into their own homelands. They were the masters of the European and Mediterranean world, and they came as masters to extend their power and assert their authority over one of the few parts of the world which they did not yet own. Their role was like that of governors and administrators, and commercial entrepreneurs; they had not come to farm or to work, merely to rule those who did.

They conquered and subdued the Celtic-ruled tribes, beginning in the south of the island and moving gradually north. By around 80 AD they were active as far north as the Solway and Tweed, and on the passes over the Cheviots. But the further north they went the more difficult it was to keep their legions supplied and controlled from their great depots and garrison centres at York and Chester.In the year 80 AD, the Roman governor, Julius Agricola, struck northwards from the Solway/Tyne line, and began a campaign intended no doubt to bring the northern tribes into the same degree of subjection as their kin in the south. Four main tribes stood in his path. In the east, between the Tweed and the Forth, were the Votadini, and their stronghold on Traprain Law. Westwards of there lay the territory of the Selgovae; and further west still, in the valley and estuary of the Clyde, were the Novantae and the Damnonii. Only the Selgovae appear to have sought seriously to obstruct Agricola's advance, and caused him to build what became a major fort, at Newstead - the Roman 'Trimontium', nestling as it did at the foot of the three peaks of the Eildon Hills.

With these tribes subdued, Agricola advanced further north, and controlled the Forth/Clyde isthmus with a line of forts. From this base in 84 AD he marched northwards, along the only route which geographical conditions then made feasible; across the Carron, then the Forth near the site of Stirling, in the territory of the Maeatae, and then to the Tay at its highest navigable point, present day Perth.

Beyond the Tay his legions moved northwards, his supply ships moving in parallel with his army, and making contact every so often to replenish supplies. Eventually his advance brought him to the spot, never yet acceptably identified, called Mons Graupius. There the northern tribes, united it seems in resistance, stood at bay; and their leader Calgacus called on his men to resist to the last against the Romans and their plans which Calgacus saw would involve the ruin and destruction of their society. The Roman future he rejected, in the phrase which Tacitus has made famous, 'Where they make a desert, they call it "peace''.

Agricola won the battle, but total conquest and occupation of the north proved beyond his capacity. The best he could do was to have small forts to keep watch at the mouths of the glens which gave access into and from the further mountain regions.

Before his term of duty ended he had constructed these outposts; the forts along the Forth and Clyde, and a network of forts and roads along which reinforcements and supplies could be brought as required. But the Roman presence in these parts was of short duration. The main Roman frontier from around 120 AD was defined by Hadrian's Wall, and north of that wall there was a very limited civilian presence. A final attempt was made by Lollius Urbicus, the Roman governor in 142-3 AD, who tried to make a more substantial and permanent wall along the Forth/Clyde line, which was named the Antonine Wall in honour of the Roman emperor of the day. This wall was built of turf on a base of stone, and was some 14ft. wide. It had forts at roughly two-mile intervals along its length, and the most impressive signs of a settled Roman way of life are to be found at these strong points.

But the Romans did leave behind them, more important than roads and forts, baths and villas, the experience and the memory of Christianity. The earliest Christians in Britain were soldiers and their families, or officials serving the legions and their organisations in some capacity. There are Christian signs at several sites, dating from the earliest days of the Antonine Wall, and for over a century before Roman rule ended in Britain, the Empire had been officially Christian. For a few brief years in the mid-fourth century the area between the Walls was once more brought under Roman control, and during that period there was born, into a Christian society, the first known Christian evangelist in our history, St Ninian.

Cultural History

The whole of the south of Scotland, up to the very edges of the Highlands, became covered in small settlements made from the trees they had chopped down with their iron axes. These settlements were usually made up of about six huts surrounded by a wooden palisade (large fence) to deter warring neighbours. But in the north and west, where trees were scarce, they built with stone as much as they could, in the same style.

They were farmers, cultivating wheat, oats and barley, and keeping pigs, herds of cattle, and flocks of sheep and goats. They depended on their livestock for food much more than they did their crops.

The Celts knew the skill of weaving, using a strong wooden frame called a loom and threads hung from its top cross bar, each pulled taut by a weight of baked clay or stone hanging near the floor. Fleece, shorn from their sheep using a sharp knife and spun into yarn, was woven to make woollen fabric. They used a wooden shuttle to pass the weft threads under one and over the next of the weighted warp threads, which were raised and lowered to let the shuttle pass easily. This was how they created the brightly coloured woollen clothes the Iron Age Celts loved.

Clothing

They also wove other materials, basketwork and matting from rushes, wattle hurdles from thin or split branches, which they used for walling.

They also worked in leather, making clothing and harnesses, and even containers, which were easier to carry than the pottery ones previously used.

Celtic Brochs

The walls would be around fifteen metres high, too high to scale. The entrance was a door so small that a battering ram could not be used, as men could not work in such a small space while the defenders fired at them from above.

All the evidence suggests that brochs were for defence, but who would have had the means and the will to attack these people? Clearly they feared an enemy who used sophisticated weapons of war. Since the brochs were never far from the shore presumably they expected an attack to come from the sea. What did the attackers want from the Celts? Could they want the people themselves, for slavery.

Possibly these invaders had weapons such as the battering ram, and they certainly used boats to travel around. If they were searching for slaves this description certainly fits the Romans.

They were indeed greatly feared by many civilisations, as they gathered slaves for their vastly growing empire. Around 2000 years ago the Romans were starting their conquest of Britain. A Roman historian, named Tacitus, wrote that slaves were one of many great prizes of the conquest of Britain, and he also wrote about the Orcades, which is another name for Orkney (where the majority of the brochs were found). But this has still to be proved beyond doubt and the investigations continue.

But there is another aspect to the mystery of the brochs. Remains of over five hundred of them are scattered around the north of Scotland, who chose the original design, why did everyone follow this standard, and why didn’t anyone else try their hand at making different styles? Maybe we’re looking through the mists of time to see one brilliant mastermind mason who thought up the idea of the brochs as a brilliant defence of his country and its people. Maybe the many tribes communicated with each other more than we realise.

The Tribes

The Celts were never one kingdom. They ruled most of Europe but never as one people. They had families, which gathered and formed clans, which gathered and formed tribes. By this time Scotland had at least 16 tribes.

They were all loyal to their own kings and queens, and had places where they would meet, like markets, where people of their own tribe could come to exchange goods, news, and any produce.

There were the Damonii, who lived in the west, an area that covered from what is now known as Ayrshire, all the way to Clyde. Then, further south were the Novantae, whose territory spread over Galloway and Dumfries. On the other side of Scotland (the east coast) where the Votadini, whose people lived as far north as the River Forth. The Votadini had their capital on a hill in East Lothian called Traprain Law. Twenty miles away from Traprain Law there was another Votadinian centre, they called it Din Eidyn, we call it Edinburgh. The fourth of these southern tribes, the Selgovae, held the area between the Votadini (in the east) and the two western coast tribes.

The other 12 tribes lived to the north of Scotland, above the Forth and Clyde. They ranged from the Epidii in the Mull of Kintyre to the Cornovii in Caithness, and from the Cerones in northwestern highlands to the Taezali, whose territory is now known as Aberdeenshire.

Throughout the time of the Celts Scotland was raged with the harsh sound of the carnyx (the Celtic war trumpet) as the neighbouring tribes battled it out over whose territory was whose; riding on horse and carriage the tribes would fight until their demise. For seven centuries they battled, and these tribes made their mark so deeply that Scotland would never forget. Over all that time there were different waves of Celtic people arriving and dominating Scotland. In later episodes we shall look at the different strains of Celtic peoples including the Picts.

While many people contributed to Scotland’s foundations, it was the Celts who left the biggest impact on Scottish nationality. Even today Celtic blood still runs wildly through the veins of many Scots and Celtic culture and language continues to be preserved and valued, particularly among the Gaels, (The Gaeltachd), who are strongly ensconced in the west of Scotland.

Sponsors