Kingdom of the First Scots

EILEEN BELL joined the HI~Arts team on a recent media excursion in Argyll, including a visit to Kilmartin House Museum
 

HISTORY MAY always repeat itself, but what’s to say that our idea of history was right in the first place?  One’s inclination is to trust ancient historical documents, forgetting that before these were historical they were almost certainly political; and therein lies the rub. 

Facts can easily be creatively edited, or changed altogether; writing something down doesn’t necessarily make it true.  Thus, in order to find answers, we have no choice but to dig, for the real truth lies under thousands of years worth of grass, peat, stone and bones.

The Scots Kingdom of Dal Riata is the perfect example of history mislaid and mistold.  Legend and document alike tell us that the Scots were descended from Fergus Mor mac Eirc, an Irish king who left Antrim to set up his Kingdom in a new land, later christened ‘Alba’ by the Gaels. The Romans called it Scotland. 

It was supposedly King Fergus who brought the Gaelic language, the entirety of Celtic culture, all of the architectural styles which would see Scotland through to the Viking Age, and – most important of all – the Scots line of descent.  For centuries, we highlanders have had little choice but to believe popular opinion, and consider ourselves Irish immigrants.

Dal Riata was based in Argyll, and its centre was the hillfort of Dunadd.  The fort is home to a huge footprint carved in stone, believed to have been used in the coronations of our kings; a huge rockcut basin; an artist’s carved interpretation of a boar or pig; and a fine example of Ogham, an Irish script.  The fort was built around the 4th or 5th Century AD, but remained in use as late as the 1500s.  Clearly it had a lasting ceremonial pull.  Was it built by the Irish as a new foundation for their kingdom?  It’s hard to say.

“We look at a map of Britain, and see land instead of water.  It’s a modern preoccupation.”

Our first problem in assessing the story stems from our willingness to believe anything that’s been written down.  The story of King Fergus came originally from the Senchus Fer nAlban (History of the Men of Scotland), and is also referred to by Bede in his extensive history of Britain. 

These texts are both ancient; but that certainly doesn’t make them true.  The former was written in the 7th Century and added to in the 10th; the latter is an 8th Century construction.  Both have put down in ink what can only have existed as an oral story for more than two hundred years; and bear in mind that both writers almost certainly had their own agendas. 

After all, the entire point of the Senchus was likely to show that certain members of the Scots Kingdom had a claim to the throne of Scotland.  We wouldn’t be so quick today to believe a tale from the 19th Century, especially one relating to bloodlines – and yet this ‘Irish Invasion’ story has lived in our minds for over a millennium.

The second problem here is that we look at a map of Britain, and see land instead of water.  It’s a modern preoccupation.  Before roads were built, travel across land was quite an undertaking.  This is especially true of Argyll.  Surrounded as it is by hills and forests, this western land of peninsulas and island groups was cut off from the east by Druim Alban (‘the spine of Britain’).

Therefore, when we consider the Kingdom of Dal Riata in relation to its nearest neighbours, we must turn away from England and the Pictish east of Scotland, and instead look towards the Hebrides, Ireland, Scandinavia, and even France.  The 12 miles between Kintyre and Antrim would hardly have been an obstacle to a race accustomed to travel by water.  Under these circumstances, a single influx of Irish blood to Argyll seems unlikely.

“For centuries, monuments have been waiting to give up their ghosts; only a tiny proportion of them have, as yet, been excavated.”

There is most certainly a similarity between the Celtic cultures of Ireland and Scotland.  One only has to look at our language, jewellery, or artwork to see that there was clearly some kind of contact between the two civilisations.  So if one culture didn’t ‘father’ the other, where – and when – do the similarities begin?

The modern evidence seems to point to a relationship between the two countries lasting thousands of years, creating a situation where the languages, architecture, skills, and artwork evolved together through the centuries.

For proof of this, we need look no further than Kilmartin House Museum in Argyll itself.  It’s a fantastic museum, smack dab in the centre of an archaeologists dream: 350 sites of interest exist in the immediate vicinity, 150 of which are prehistoric.

Due to a great deal of hard work from Kilmartin House Museum, many of the artefacts from these sites have been brought back to Argyll.  Churned up by archaeologists over the last couple of centuries, these relics have now been loaned to Kilmartin by their original claimants – the British Museum, the National Museum of Scotland, and Glasgow City Museum. 

Amongst the impressive array of artefacts is a Neolithic axe, found near Loch Sween – and made with Irish stone.  It’s clear evidence that there was movement and collaboration between Ireland and Scotland long before the Scots were named Scots, possibly as far back as 4000BC. The axe is only one of Kilmartin’s impressive collection of pieces, providing valuable clues to the habits and lives of our ancestors.

Nothing about these theories can be certain.  King Fergus probably did exist, arriving in Argyll around 500AD; but the excavations of Dunadd show very little evidence to support the ‘Irish Invasion’ theory.  Of course, lack of evidence in itself proves absolutely nothing; but if an entire civilisation populated our shores en masse in 500 AD, they certainly came quietly.

The answer to the question of the Scots’ origin is an elusive one; but more clues are sure to be found.  For centuries, monuments have been waiting to give up their ghosts; only a tiny proportion of them have, as yet, been excavated.  The answers we have about the Dal Riata Kingdom tell us an incomplete story, waiting to be verified, challenged, proven, and questioned.

© Eileen Bell, 2005

Related Link

• Kilmartin House Museum website