Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
THE NORTHERN ISLES
With their sophisticated ships and navigational skills, the
Vikings
, beginning their expansion in the
eighth century, soon gained supremacy over the Pictish peoples in Shetland, Orkney, the extreme
northeast corner of the mainland and the Western Isles. For the next six centuries the Northern
Isles were distinct from the rest of what is now called Scotland, becoming a base for raiding and
colonization in Britain and Ireland, and forming links with the Faroes, Iceland, Greenland and, more
tenuously, North America. Norse culture flourished, and buildings such as St Magnus Cathedral in
Kirkwall, Orkney, give some idea of its energy. However, there were bouts of unrest, and finally
Shetland was brought under direct rule from Norway at the end of the twelfth century.
When Norway united with Sweden under the Danish Crown in the fourteenth century,
Norse
power
began to wane and Scottish influence to increase. In 1469, a marriage was
arranged between Margaret, daughter of the Danish King Christian I, and the future King
James III of Scotland. Short of cash for her dowry, Christian mortgaged Orkney to Scotland in
1468, followed by Shetland in 1469; neither pledge was ever successfully redeemed. The laws,
religion and administration of the Northern Isles became Scottish, though their Norse heritage
is still very evident in place names, dialect and culture.
On the west coast, to the north and west of the Britons, lived the
Scotti
, Irish-Celtic
invaders who eventually gave their name to the whole country. he first Scotti arrived in
the Western Isles from Ireland in the fourth century AD, and about a century later their
great king, Fergus Mor, moved his base from Antrim to Dunadd, near Lochgilphead,
where he founded the kingdom of Dalriada. he Scotti spoke Q-Celtic, the precursor of
modern Gaelic. On the east coast, the Germanic
Anglo-Saxons
had sailed north along
the coast to settle around Dunbar in East Lothian. he final addition to the ethnic mix
was also non-Celtic; from around 800 AD,
Norse
invaders began to arrive, settling
mainly in the Northern Isles and the northeast of the mainland.
Many of the Britons had been
Christians
since Roman times and it was a Briton,
St Ninian, who conducted the first missionary work among the Picts at the end of the
fourth century. Attempts to convert the Picts were resumed in the sixth century by
St
Columba
, one of the Gaelic-speaking Scotti, who established the island of
Iona
as a
centre of Christian culture, opening the way for many peaceable contacts between the
Picts and Scotti. Intermarriage became commonplace and the Scotti king
Kenneth
MacAlpine
, who united Dalriada and Pictland in 843 AD, was the son of a Pictish
princess. Similarly, MacAlpine's creation of the united kingdom of
Alba
, later known as
Scotia
, was part of a process of integration rather than outright conquest. Kenneth and
his successors gradually expanded their kingdom by marriage and force of arms until,
by 1034, almost all of what we now call Scotland was under their rule.
The Middle Ages
he succession of
Malcolm III
, known as Canmore (“Bighead”), in 1057 marked the
beginning of a period of fundamental change in Scottish society. Having spent
seventeen years at the English court, Malcolm sought to apply to Scotland a range of
ideas he had brought back with him. He and his heirs established a secure dynasty
based on succession through the male line (as opposed to the female succession
142
162
397
The Romans build Antonine
Wall between the Firth of
Forth and the Firth of Clyde.
The Romans withdraw from
the Antonine Wall and retreat
behind Hadrian's Wall.
St Ninian establishes the
first Christian church north
of Hadrian's Wall.
