The Arrival of the Gaels in
Scotland
The beginnings of Gaelic Scotland
Scotland
Around 600AD
DAL RIATA
The Gaels in Scotland
• Dál Riata is the name of the Gaelic
kingdom which in the period c580s-630s
was located in today’s Argyll in Scotland
and Antrim in northern Ireland.
• The kingdom in Scotland was itself divided
into three smaller units.
• The history of Dal Riata is well
documented.
The Gaels in Scotland
• A chronicle was written in Iona from the
early 600sAD and survives up to the year
747AD.
• Dal Riata is the setting for many of the
episodes in the life of St Columba.
• The military and financial life of the
kingdom is reflected in the Senchus fer
nAlban.
The Gaels in Scotland
• Archaeology also tells us a great deal
about this kingdom, espcially from
Dunadd.
• Because of these sources we have more
information about this part of Scotland for
the period pre-1200 than any other part.
• The most powerful king in the early period
was Aedan mac Gabrain.
The Gaels in Scotland
• He was the first ordained king of a Scottish
kingdom. He was ordained by St Columba
himself in 574 AD.
• He had influence from Northern Ireland to
Orkney, and into Pictland and
Northumbria.
• Their strength came from the Ui Neill
initially and then from the Northumbrians.
The Gaels in Scotland
• Usually Dal Riata has been seen as an
Irish colony- an extension of the Dal Riata
in Ireland founded by Fergus Mor.
• But today, it is thought that the beginnings
of Gaelic culture in Scotland were part of a
more general movement east that
predates the time of Fergus.
The Gaels in Scotland
• Dal Riata as a kingdom seems to have
ceased to exist between 740-840. The
Picts may have destroyed the kingdom at
that time.
• The later period after this is dominated by
the name of Kenneth Mac Alpin.
Kenneth Mac Alpin (?- 858)
• Kenneth Mac Alpin (Cinaed mac Ailpin)
was probably of Dal Riata stock but
became king of the Picts in the mid 9th
century (c840-858AD).
• A century after his death he was portrayed
as destroyer of the Picts and founder of
the Kingdom of Alba (Scotland).
Kenneth Mac Alpin (?- 858)
• Obviously he did not destroy the Picts.
• He may have united the kingdoms of
Gaelic Dal Riata and Pictland.
Columba
Colum Cille of Iona
Columba (c.521-597)
• Columba was one of the defining Irish
churchmen of his time.
• He is especially associated with the founding off
the monastic centres of Iona (Scotland), Derry
and Durrow (in Ireland).
• His influence was wide-spread, and led to at
least forty settlements in both Ireland and
Scotland.
• He became one of the most revered of the early
Irish monastic leaders in the Age of the Saints.
Columba (c.521-597)
• The earliest account of St Columba’s life
was apparently written by one Cumméne,
abbot of Iona from 657 to 669. This work is
only known from an extract.
• The later Vita Columbi was written by St
Adomnán, ninth abbot of Iona (679704AD). Despite this work being an
account based on miracle stories mainly, it
is the main source for much of what we
know about Columba.
Iona
Iona
THE BOOK OF KELLS
• Where and when?
• It seems most likely that the manuscript
was produced in Iona (elements of Pictish
art), and parallels with Iona stone crosses.
• Possibly the ms was transferred to Kells in
807 at the height of the Viking raids.
The Book of Kells: The Temptation
of Christ.
• At one level the most plausible explanation is
that the upper half depicts Christ being tempted
by the Devil to throw Himself from the top of the
Temple in jerusalem by saying that the angels
will save him, and the lower half depicts the Last
Judgement.
• However a more symbolic interpretation has
also been suggested.
The Book of Kells: The Temptation
of Christ (next slide)
• The upper half then represents not only the
Temptation but also the newly-baptized Christ
full of the Holy Spirit reading Isaiah in the pulpit
of the synagogue to an assempled congregation
(the episode immediately after the Temptation).
• The vines then represent the Eucharist, while
the peacocks and snakes draw attention to the
concepts of eternity and resurrection.
Gaelic
• The Gaelic language was introduced into
western Scotland in part as a result of the
growth of the kingdom of Dal Riata, but
also because of the gradual spread of
Columban Christianity into Pictland and
the Lowlands.
A Gaelic History of Scotland
• The Celtic-speaking majority in Scotland was
made up of Britons in the SW, Gaels in the west
and Picts in the remaining areas to the north and
the east. (Picts are first mentioned in 297AD).
• There is no real suggestion that most of the
Picts were any different to their southern Celtic
neighbours (names like Calgacus,
Argentocoxos, Mailchon suggest they were
basically the same).
A Gaelic History of Scotland
• The various Celtic peoples of early Scotland
were gradually integrated into a Gaelic identity
which was itself altered by their influence.
• In the later centuries AD, the north of Scotland
was also colonised by Norse (Viking) settlers,
• And already earlier the SE by Anglo-Saxons
(Angles).
• They were minorities to begin with, whilst the
large interior remained Celtic and maintained
links with centres of learning and culture in
Ireland.
A Gaelic History of Scotland
• During the centuries of Gaelic-Pictish interaction,
a ‘bilingualism’ of the two forms of Celtic must
have been the norm.
• There was a long process of linguistic shift, and
cultural assimilation between the two peoples.
The church as much as anything encouraged
the final integration of the Picts into Gaelic
culture.
• The Irish saint Columba (Colum Cille, died
597AD) played a key-role in this process.
A Gaelic History of Scotland
• One remarkable document reveals the
interaction between Gaels (of Dal Riata),
Britons (of Strathclyde) and Picts in
697AD, when St Adomnán’s treaty was
ratified by the three peoples giving
protection to women, children and clergy
from the ravages of war.
• This treaty took effect not only in the land
of the Scots-“Scotland” but also in Ireland.
A Gaelic History of Scotland
• But by the 10th century Scotland was
becoming a kingdom of its own, dominated
by Gaelic-speaking kings and chieftains.
• The advent of feudalism changed many
aspects of the new Scottish kingdom.
• When King David of Scotland came to the
throne (1124), he granted the first feudal
settlements in southern Scotland.
Britons and Angles
• The most enduring of the British Celtic
peoples in Scotland were the Strathclyde
Britons based around Dumbarton Rock or
Alt Clut. This kingdom probably covered
Dumbartonshire, Ayrshire.
• Another was centred on Dundonald, and
was called the kingdom of Manaw.
The Britons of Strathclyde
• The kingdom of
Strathclyde probably
derived from the
earlier Damnonii (or
Dumnonii) people.
• In the 8th century their
capital was called Alt
Clut- Rock of the
Clyde, today known
as Dumbarton.
• Map of Strathclyde
The Britons of Strathclyde
• This Rock has been excavated and has
revealed that it was build upon c6th
century AD.
• The Britons of Strathclyde were rich
enough to import goods from France and
the Mediterranean.
The Britons of Strathclyde
• Several kings of Strathclyde are recorded.
• The earliest is Ceredig (5th century,
possibly mentioned by St Patrick in his
writings).
• In the time of St Columba, the king was
one Rhydderch ap Tudwal. He is know in
Welsh sources as Rhydderch the
Generous.
The Britons of Strathclyde
• The same king may have fought against
the Angles (of Bernicia).
• In the Life of St Kentigern (of Glasgow,
another Strathclyde Briton), he is also
mentioned, as a patron of the saint.
• In another Welsh source (a poem- The
Appletrees), he is depicted as the victor at
the battle of Arfderydd.
The Britons of Strathclyde
• Possibly the kingdom’s of Dal Riata and
Strathclyde were on good terms.
• The Pictish king Bridei was the son of Bili
(Beli), a king of Strathclyde.
• Yet, there is evidence from Welsh
medieval sources that the king of Dal
Riata (Aedan mac Gabrain) fought against
the Strathclyde Britons.
The Britons of Strathclyde
• By the late 8th centuryAD Strathclyde and
Dal Riata seem to have lived in peace, but
with the Viking attacks in the ninth century,
Strathclyde was destroyed as a political
entity.
• With the union of Dal Riata and Pictland in
843, under Kenneth Mac Alpin, the
remaining Britons would be overwhelmed.
The Britons of Strathclyde
• In 889, the last of the Strathclyde kings
died, and the old kingdom annexed.
• Many of the Strathclyde nobles fled to
North Wales (Gwynedd) taking many of
their literary traditions with them.
• The British component of Scottish history
has yet to be fully examined.
The Britons of Strathclyde
• In southern Scotland, early inscribed
stones bearing British names are found in
Galloway, in Lothian and in the Borders.
• Perhaps even some of the alleged Pictish
symbols carved on objects in southern
Scotland may have been made by
northern Britons.
The early ethnic groups in
Scotland
The Angles- Bernicia
• In origin a British (Celtic) people, they
were Germanic speaking.
• Their expansion
• By the 670s the Bernicians had captured
all the lands of the northern Britons,
although they also faced defeat at the
hands of the Pictish king Bridei son of Beli
in 685.