Who are the peoples who made Scotland? In the 21st Century, people all over the world claim
Scottish descent, but Scotland's not a static thing, that had always been there, whose culture
is homogeneous, and whose unity has been eternal. The truth is much more complicated than that.
Now an in-depth examination would take smarter people than me, a library of
books, and a horde of scribes taking notes from angels, fairies, gods of Valhalla and men of old,
but I'm going to help dip our toes in the water, with a series of short videos looking
at the five peoples who made Scotland. This is the episode of the people who gave us their name; the
Scots. If you're interested in the people, places and events in Scottish history, then click the
subscribe button at the bottom right hand side of the screen. In the meantime, let me tell you a story.
Scotland was forged out of five peoples; the Picts, the Vikings, the Britons,
the Angles and of course the Scots. The story goes that in the 5th Century
AD, Fergus Mor MacErc came from the north of what we call Ireland, crossed the Irish Sea,
and made Scotland's western seaboard the coast of the Gael, Airer Goídel, you might say Argyll.
This act by our founding fathers is what created the sea kingdom of Dalriada, which stretched from the
north of one island, to the west of another, and encompassed those in between. Of course, in the
time of the giants, there was a causeway (Giant's Causeway) across that narrow sea, but Fergus had to come by boat.
In truth, the story of Fergus is never mentioned until the 10th Century, 500 years after his
supposed existence. Now earlier in the 8th Century, the Northumbria cleric and historian Bede,
told a similar story, but he gave the name of King Reuda as the man who gave his name to Dalriada.
Maybe we need to do a bit more digging.
Archaeologists have done some digging here. This is Dunaad. This is the most important hill
fort in this land of Gaels. Before the birth of Jesus Christ, before the Romans came, this rocky
outcrop surrounded by boggy ground, has been providing a secure living location for those
at its summit. From later habitation, archaeologists have found glassware,
metalworking moulds for brooch making, military equipment and more amphora for Gaulish wine
than just about anywhere else. From this hilltop, important people traded far and near,
but how did this kingdom of Dalriada come to be? If not Fergus or Reuda then who da?
I'm sorry about that! Archaeologists and linguists say, that if there was a migration of people from
across the Irish Sea, then they would expect that at the time ring forts typical on the island
of Ireland, would start appearing here in Argyll. The linguistic bases of place names would have
suddenly changed, and it would have included blended names with both languages in them. It
was the kind of thing that you saw when the Angles and the Saxons displaced the Britons further south,
or the Gaels later travelled to the east across Scotland, but apparently none of that happens.
In fact much earlier, the Romans had complained about both Scotti,
(pirates) speaking the Gaelic tongue, and Pictii, (painted people) speaking a Brythonic language.
They were different peoples acting in co-operation to raid south of Hadrian's Wall, so the Romans
seemed to have seen two distinctive peoples, and that was well before the famous Fergus MacErc.
Now if you want more detailed examination, you're going to have to read 'From Pictland to Alba' by Alex
Woolf, or 'The Makers of Scotland' by Tim Clarkson, or even 'Picts, Gaels and Scots' by Sally Foster.
Now of course there are other books, but there are links to these ones in the description below.
It seems that there's a more likely story, that many years earlier, before the Romans coined the
terms Pictii or Scotti, scattered tribes of Britons existed throughout what we now
call Scotland. These tribes would have had many different names. They probably didn't
see themselves as a single people. Here the people looked east, and there would
have been mountains between them and the other Brythonic speaking cousins on this island. They
looked west and they saw the shore, and islands beyond. We call them Islay, Jura, Mull and Ireland.
They were easily reached across narrow waterways, trade routes to their Goidelic speaking cousins.
It was natural that trade, and exchange of culture would happen in that direction. Now if that's the
case, then simple trade and social exchange brought Goidelic Celtic language, so that by the time that
Fergus MacErc was ever thought of, the Romans had already noticed the change, and there are stone
monuments in this very glen, that show similarities to Irish designs back to the Bronze Age.
It's even been suggested, that the story of Fergus MacErc, was invented to justify Dalriadan
Kings from here in Argyll crossing, to make claims in the other direction.
'What are you talking about? These lands have always been ours, right back to when Fergus MacErc
came from here to found our colony in Argyll. Aye Fergus, don't tell me you've forgotten King Fergus?
He was always sitting on that big stone that he walked aboot (about) with.' The truth is that people would
have gone in both directions, this way and that, over the narrow waterways that defined Dalriada.
Over time, this side developed into three main clans or kin groups, with a fourth coming later.
the Cenél nGabráin in Kintyre, the Cenél nÓengusa in Islay and Jura, the Cenél Loairn in Lorne,
Mull and Ardnamurchan, and Cenél Comgaill in Cowal and Bute. Each claim descent from their own
forebear whose name is now etched into the land. One way or another, the Scottish and the Irish
branches of this Dalriadan family split, and went their own ways. Now it might have been part of a
big meeting near Limavady in the 6th Century that was attended by St Columba, Aeden MacGabrain,
and the High King of Ireland no less! In case you've never watched a video about St Columba,
here's one I've made earlier. Unlike Fergus MacErc, Columba was real. He'd crossed from the
Irishy part of Dalriada, to the Scottishy bit, to minister to now Christian Gaels, and legend has
it to convert the Picts. In 574 AD, when he laid his hands on the head of Aeden MacGabrain at Iona,
Columba was the first cleric to preside over Christian ceremony inaugurating a Scottish
Dalriadan King, but there would have been an equivalent pagan ceremony here on this hill,
where people of importance would have gathered inside the walls of a hilltop stronghold,
just below the citadel, and Aeden MacGabrain, like many before him, would have placed his foot in
this hollow carved out for the purpose. Now the King of Scots joined the very rock of the land,
and this link between King and stone and church, would be made by many more Scottish
kings for generations to come, as they sat on the Stone of Destiny at Scone, but this
is where it had its origins. Whatever happened at the big meeting at Limavady, it seemed to set Aeden
MacGabrain free. He headed south and east and subdued the Britons, and took tribute right across to the
edge of Perthshire, which must have scared the bejesus oot of the Picts. Having consolidated control and
submission in the eastern Britons, he then raided western Britons at Dumbarton. Gradually Aeden was
spreading the influence of the Gaels of Dalriada. In 598 he was into Pictish territory
proper. Aeden may have suffered a defeat and lost two of his sons at a battle with the Picts in
Angus, but the Scots of Dalriada were still a power to be reckoned with, and then there was a power
rising in the south east. Now Aeden controlled the territory of the Britons in their north
and west, but the Anglo-Saxon King Aethelfrith was selling them coke and hash from the south east
bada bing bada boom. The showdown was at Degastane, which was somewhere east of Glasgow and north of
Newcastle, west of Edinburgh, but okay we don't know where it is right. The point is that Aeden
was defeated. The Angle Aethelfrith, was now the top dog, and the Scots retreated back to Dalriada.
They'd reached their high watermark, at least for now. If you want to understand
more about the peoples of Scotland and how it was formed, then click the link coming up
on screen now. In the meantime, tha mi an dochas gum bith lath math leibh. Tiorridh an drasda.