The first Celts came to Scotland around 700 BC.

The Celts knew the skill of weaving, using a strong wooden frame called a loom and threads hung from its top cross bar, each pulled taut by a weight of baked clay or stone hanging near the floor. Fleece, shorn from their sheep using a sharp knife and spun into yarn, was woven to make woollen fabric. They used a wooden shuttle to pass the weft threads under one and over the next of the weighted warp threads, which were raised and lowered to let the shuttle pass easily. This was how they created the brightly coloured woollen clothes the Iron Age Celts loved.

They also wove other materials, basketwork and matting from rushes, wattle hurdles from thin or split branches, which they used for walling.

They also worked in leather, making clothing and harnesses, and even containers, which were easier to carry than the pottery ones previously used.

The Brochs

Last week we referred to the Brochs built in the north and west of Scotland for defence.

Here is an illustration of the Broch of Mousa in the Shetland Islands. The walls would be around fifteen metres high, too high to scale. The entrance was a door so small that a battering ram could not be used, as men could not work in such a small space while the defenders fired at them from above. All the evidence suggests that brochs were for defence, but who would have had the means and the will to attack these people? Clearly they feared an enemy who used sophisticated weapons of war. Since the brochs were never far from the shore presumably they expected an attack to come from the sea. What did the attackers want from the Celts? Could they want the people themselves, for slavery. Possibly these invaders had weapons such as the battering ram, and they certainly used boats to travel around. If they were searching for slaves this description certainly fits the Romans.

They were indeed greatly feared by many civilisations, as they gathered slaves for their vastly growing empire. Around 2000 years ago the Romans were starting their conquest of Britain. A Roman historian, named Tacitus, wrote that slaves were one of many great prizes of the conquest of Britain, and he also wrote about the Orcades, which is another name for Orkney (where the majority of the brochs were found). But this has still to be proved beyond doubt and the investigations continue.

But there is another aspect to the mystery of the brochs. Remains of over five hundred of them are scattered around the north of Scotland, who chose the original design, why did everyone follow this standard, and why didn’t anyone else try their hand at making different styles? Maybe we’re looking through the mists of time to see one brilliant mastermind mason who thought up the idea of the brochs as a brilliant defence of his country and its people. Maybe the many tribes communicated with each other more than we realise.

The Tribes

The Celts were never one kingdom. They ruled most of Europe but never as one people. They had families, which gathered and formed clans, which gathered and formed tribes. By this time Scotland had at least 16 tribes.

They were all loyal to their own kings and queens, and had places where they would meet, like markets, where people of their own tribe could come to exchange goods, news, and any produce. There were the Damonii, who lived in the west, an area that covered from what is now known as Ayrshire, all the way to Clyde. Then, further south were the Novantae, whose territory spread over Galloway and Dumfries. On the other side of Scotland (the east coast) where the Votadini, whose people lived as far north as the River Forth. The Votadini had their capital on a hill in East Lothian called Traprain Law. Twenty miles away from Traprain Law there was another Votadinian centre, they called it Din Eidyn, we call it Edinburgh. The fourth of these southern tribes, the Selgovae, held the area between the Votadini (in the east) and the two western coast tribes.

The other 12 tribes lived to the north of Scotland, above the Forth and Clyde. They ranged from the Epidii in the Mull of Kintyre to the Cornovii in Caithness, and from the Cerones in northwestern highlands to the Taezali, whose territory is now known as Aberdeenshire.

Throughout the time of the Celts Scotland was raged with the harsh sound of the carnyx (the Celtic war trumpet) as the neighbouring tribes battled it out over whose territory was whose; riding on horse and carriage the tribes would fight until their demise. For seven centuries they battled, and these tribes made their mark so deeply that Scotland would never forget. Over all that time there were different waves of Celtic people arriving and dominating Scotland. In later episodes we shall look at the different strains of Celtic peoples including the Picts.

While many people contributed to Scotland’s foundations, it was the Celts who left the biggest impact on Scottish nationality. Even today Celtic blood still runs wildly through the veins of many Scots and Celtic culture and language continues to be preserved and valued, particularly among the Gaels, (The Gaeltachd), who are strongly ensconced in the west of Scotland.

Indeed, one of the major sponsors of our project is An Comunn Gaidhealach who promote traditional language and culture in many ways, but particularly through the many competitions they organise annually, the largest of which is The Royal National Mod. See the link to The Mod below.