Four Peoples - One Nation?
There is a curious misconception among some, that Scotland is entirely a Celtic nation. In fact, until the writings of W. F Skene in his work “Celtic Scotland”, published in the 19th century, the opposite was the case. Until “Celtic Scotland” (the History of the Highlanders) was published, Celtic-Highland history was completely ignored or diminished to a minor footnote of history. Since then, oddly, the history of Scotland has become, to some, the history of the Highlanders. Neither view is correct as it lacks historic balance. Whether this misconception is due to the cultural similarities of the Highlanders to the Irish, or romantic ties to the ancient Celts is unclear. But, Scotland today is a more cohesive nation than it was earlier in its history. Over 90% of modern Scots speak English as their primary language and the native Gaelic speaking Highlander is becoming increasingly a rare and unique individual. Going back some three hundred years we can clearly see two Scotland’s: one of the Gaels and Highlander, the other of the Anglo-Celtic Lowlander. This cultural separation was more dramatic in historic terms than today. But the role these two different cultures play in Scottish history was considerable, and vital to our understanding of the nation’s history. Even before the Highland-Lowland division, four separate kingdoms comprised what is now modern day Scotland. Those four peoples and how they came to form one nation sets the backdrop for this chapter.
Even before the Roman withdrawal in 410 AD, the differing factions who would compete for the land and soul of Scotland were manifesting in four very different cultures. The most numerous were the Picts who’d been in Scotland before the Romans. The others, with the possible exception of the Strathclyde British, were relative newcomers. The Angles from Holstein, Germany and the Scots from Ireland would come to dominate the native Picts and Britons. But how did this happen? Who were these different people?
Celtic Horse Warrior - K McReynolds
Since the Picts are the oldest race to occupy Scotland, it seems logical to begin with them. The Picts, the Celtic people of the Highlands and southern Scotland, are the most enigmatic. We first encounter the name ‘picti’ (probably meaning ‘painted ones’) from Eumenuis, a Roman historian in 297 A.D. Although they’d been generically called Caledonians before that, the Picts emerged as the strongest tribe as the Romans departed Scotland. Twenty-five years ago, archaeologists excavated an ancient Pictish hill-fort called ‘Craig Phadrig’. What was revealed were two concentric ramparts crowning the summit, which had become “vitrified” - stone, earth and timber structures that had likely intentionally been set on fire -- leaving the stone and earth fused together in an almost glassy, petrified state. Craig Phadrig was an important Pictish stronghold around the 5th century onwards. It was the seat of King Brude (one of many Pictish kings bearing this name) or Bridei mac Maelchu. The Venerable Bede, in his work, “The History of the English Church and People”, written in the early 8th century, describes Bridei as an ‘Over king’ of many local kingdoms. His lands comprised most of Pictland (Pentland) and extended from the Firth of Fourth through the center and towards the north-east of Scotland as far as Orkney.
Pictish Stone
The Picti or ‘painted ones’ was probably a Roman nickname for the emerging Caledonian tribe of northern Scotland, although their lands would eventually include much of Scotland. The Picts were, like most “pure” races, were a mixture of peoples. As briefly discussed in chapter one, they are most likely a fusion of native Bronze-Iron Age inhabitants (Beaker People?) with proto-Celtic peoples that conquered or assimilated them circa 700-1,000 BCE. Dr. Anna Ritchie (“Picts” - Historic Scotland), says this:
“The Picts were Celts. Their ultimate ancestors were the people who built the great stone circles like Calanais on the Isle of Lewis in the third millennium BC in Neolithic times, and the brochs in the early Iron Age from about 600 BC to 200 AD.“
Since some experts feel it was a people before the Picts, that constructed the stone henges, Ritchie’s conclusion stating the “ultimate ancestors [of the Picts]” is sound. It is very likely (and this has to be speculative) that some proto-Celtic tribes moved into Scotland, whether by conquest, marriage or both, affecting assimilation, thus linking the Iron Age builders of those monuments with the Celts that we now call Picts. We know that one King ‘Brude’, of Craig Phadrig, the center of Pictish power moved southward to Angus, Perthshire and Fife. This didn’t change the culture of the Picts, but seems indicate a shift in power. There were two distinct Pictish kingdoms: one of the north, they other in the south. The Picts left no decipherable written language, no records for historians to study them. What we do know of these enigmatic people we know from the writings of others - usually their enemies. Therefore, we are bound to get a biased or distorted view of them. Even the name itself - Picts - has a mysterious origin. Author, Charles Thomas, “Celtic Britain”, says that the Iron Age people called themselves Pretani or Pritani (from the Greek Prettania) that predates the word Britannia, to which it has obvious similarities. The Welsh name for Britain is Pyrdein, and a related word ‘Priteni, is probably a generic term for all the tribes beyond the Antonine Wall. Nevertheless, the word Pict might simply be a Roman word (picti) used to describe the ancient Pictish practice of painting or tattooing themselves with intricate designs. In the first century, Caesar remarks, “All Britons dye their bodies with woad which produces a blue color and this gives them a terrifying appearance in battle.” The name stuck, and the people in the north have been known as the Picts ever since. It is possible that the use of woad with the Picts continued long after the southern Britons had been romanized and ceased the practice.
Thomas believes that the British Celts came around 500 BC and imposed their own rudimentary tribal structure on the Bronze-Iron Age Inhabitants rather than conquering them much later. In the 11th century, we get another, if fanciful, name for the Picts - the Cruithne or ‘first Pict”. This comes in the form of a legend first recorded in the 11th century, of the seven sons (each naming his own district) as sons of this legendary Cruithne. Truth? Not likely, but legendary stories from this period are common.
One of the most important cultural oddities about the Picts is their system of matrilineal line of succession, which some attribute to Bronze Age cultures. This descent through the female line, instead of the male (as the Scots and Angles), would eventually lead to their virtual disappearance in history as a separate people.
Cassius Dio mentions another prominent tribe in Scotland known as the “Maeatae”. As far as can be established, the Maeatae were located in the area immediately behind the Antonine Wall, with the Caledonians a bit further north. It has been suggested that place-names Dumyat and Myot Hill in Stirlingshire can be attributed to the Maeatae.
The Picts seem to emerge the strongest of the four peoples, as we head into the 4-5th centuries, which suggests their dominance of the other tribes. Tacitus identifies the Picts racial type when he tells us that the Caledonians -- supposedly one of the name-groups of the Pictish race -- were "fair or reddish haired and long limbed". This closely matches the description that Ammianus Marcellinus gave of the Gauls: "Almost all the Gauls are tall and fair skinned with reddish hair"
Their society also seems to have strong similarities and parallels to the Irish or Scots, implying a Celtic heritage. There are also differences, especially in language, from the Scots. Place-names beginning with ‘Pit’ are found throughout Pictish areas and this is thought to be a survival of a Pictish term meaning a parcel of land, such as Pitlochry and Pitsligo. Their territory stretched all the way down the east coast to the Forth and up to the farthest northern reaches of Scotland.
Pictish Ornamentation
We do not know what they called themselves, but later others called them ‘Cruithne’: a word that certainly has a Celtic heritage. They seem to have been many tribes somehow divided into two kingdoms: the north and the south. What bound them together may have been the invaders themselves. From Pictish art, we know they were a horse-warrior society and that they had knowledge of the sea, just like the Scots. Occasionally, for reasons that are not clear, a leader (initially a northern Pict) would rule both North and South Pictland. There exists a list of Pictish rulers before they were conquered by the Scots, but such lists are tenuous at best as sources of history. The Scots once compiled a list going back to Adam - but that was intended for the eyes of a pope, and was probably a good maneuver.
Militarily, the Picts appear well organized and equipped. They outnumbered the Scots by more than nine to one, and with such organization, it is baffling how they could have been defeated in four centuries. They fought under commanders called ‘toiseachs’ and powerful local lords (later earls) known as ‘mormaers’. The Pictish centers (it might be too modern to pronounce them capitals) in the south were around Dunkeld and Scone. In the north, Forfar was the Circinn center. The great fortress of Burghead on the Moray Firth may have been an important Northern Pictish stronghold. In the far north, the people were few and spread out in wide areas. These areas seem to have had no centralized authority or fortification, but probably fell under the realm of the Northern Picts. As for a ‘clan system’, there is no evidence at all to suggest the Picts had anything like what the Scottish Highlanders would later develop.
Pictish Stones
Class II Pictish Stone
Possibly the strangest, or rather, most baffling mystery left to us from the ancient Picts are their ornately carved symbol stones. It has been postulated these were: tribal insignia to mark territory; signs of rank, or primitive heraldry; religious offerings or gifts to gods, or even a crude means of communication. Whatever their meaning, the detail carved into solid stone shows a mastery of stonework and tribal artistry that is truly unique to the Picts. These carved stones are divided into three classes. Class I stones are usually rough boulders incised only with the unique Pictish symbols. Class II stones are rectangular slabs that, in addition to Pictish symbols; contain relief sculpture of the Christian cross and narrative scenes. Class III stones are similar to Class II, but without the symbols. Many stones are still visible in the countryside; there are some very good examples at Aberlemno in Angus.
One of the Aberlemno Stones
courtesy of Tam Anderson
Rather than being a backward tribal society, the Picts were a cultured people with art and a sophisticated form of warfare. Many of the stones have been left in upright and original conditions. More amazing is what is carved onto these stones. Though the Aberlemno stones are still being deciphered, they offer tantalizing clues. The Glamis Stone, in the front garden of the Manse of St. Fergus’s Kirk at Glamis in Angus, dates back to the early 8th century and has earlier carvings representing a serpent, salmon and what is determined to be a mirror. A large Celtic cross is entangled with serpentine creatures and the opposite side has a legendary centaur, axe in hand, the head of a stag, two warriors, and disturbingly, a cauldron with two legs sticking out. Evidence of ritual cannibalism after combat? No one is certain.
Sueno’s Stone, uncovered in the 18th century, has an elaborate ring-head cross on the front and a battle scene on the back. The battle scene, including severed heads, depicts both infantry and cavalry and has been suggested as being a defeat of the Picts by the Scots, but could well be a memorial to the Angle defeat at Dunnichen. (See Battle of Nechtansmere).
Going back to the late Roman occupation, in the 4th century, the Picts took the war to the Romans, and after a series of battles, counterattacks, and campaigns, the Romans were under siege.
Pictish Cross Stone
Courtesy Tam Anderson
In the mid-4th century, the Scots (based in Argyll) allied with the Picts and harried the Roman frontier once again. In 365, the Romans historian, Ammianus Marcellinus, clearly identifies Rome’s enemies in Britain at the time: the Dicalydones, Verturiones, Scots, Attacotti and Saxons. Aside from the Scots and Saxons, the other three tribes were probably branches of the Picts. Roman positions were under siege from three directions. To what extent there was collusion betwixt these is uncertain. The Saxon raid on the south of Britain, so long held at bay by Roman fortifications on the ‘Saxon Shore’, were not likely connected to the temporary Scoto-Pictish alliance. In 367-369 and again in 382 AD, the Scoto-Picts attacked in force in what Roman historians have called the “Barbarian Conspiracy”, and it took Rome considerable time and force to repel the attackers. The Picts, this time acting alone, attacked again in 396 but were eventually repelled by Roman general Stilicho. Clearly, the constant raids were having an effect, and with Rome needing its warriors at home, they left about AD 410, creating a power vacuum that would pit the Picts, Scots, Angles and Britons against each other.
Though we shall be talking more about the demise of the Picts under the topic ‘the Scots’, it is important to underscore the fact that the Picts did not simply ‘disappear’ or vanish from Scotland. What vanished was the name of the Picts. Through a combination of warfare and marriage, the Pictish Kingdoms, both north and south, would be completely absorbed by the Scots. Though the people themselves remained, what seems not to have survived was their language and culture. This is one sad fact of conquest throughout the ages. By the late Ninth century, the Picts as a separate and identifiable people would disappear from the history of Scotland. Assimilating into a dominant and quickly emerging Scottish culture, along with being forced out of the North and west by the Norse (chapter 4), the people who history refers to as ‘Picts’ -- became Scots.