The Picts - The History of Scotland

The Picts, the Painted Men, lived in much of northern and eastern Scotland between 200 and 850 AD. These Celts were descendants of all the early peoples who had settled in Britain since earliest times.

The Picts were skilled at making metal weapons and tools, they were also highly skilled stone carvers.

Although they left no written records the Picts recorded their way of life in a unique way. The Highlands and Islands were scattered with standing stones on which they carved their history.

Drawings of hunting scenes, battles and strange, wonderful animals adorned the stones, along with runic symbols, mirror and comb signs and abstract designs such as the z-rod and crescent.

Today the most famous of the Pictish Symbol Stones are sheltered in an Edinburgh museum but printed tapestry copies hang in Groam House Museum in Rosemarkie, in the next village to Fortrose in the Black Isle. A very few may still be viewed in fields, churchyards and by roadsides, where they have stood for hundreds of years.

Because they left no written records there are many things that we still do not know about the Picts. For example, many historians believe that the Picts were divided into separate tribes and that by the year 600 there were Pictish kings who were Christians. Legend has it that Saint Columba converted King Brude, whose vitrified fort commanded the top of Craig Phadraig in Inverness, to Christianity in 597AD.

The Picts also had conflicts with neighbouring peoples. The Angles were a Germanic race who had crossed the North Sea in waves mainly after the Romans left Britain and settled in England. After 600 AD these Angles began to push northwards. By 640 AD they had destroyed the Celtic kingdom of Gododdin. In 685 AD a huge army of these Angles marched north of Perth into Angus. Near Forfar they were met by a Pictish army and crushed. The invasion of Northern Britain by the Angles had been halted.

By the year 750 AD the Picts ruled the largest kingdom in Scotland, yet 100 years later their kingdom had vanished. The reason for this is unknown, but many historians believe that in the 790’s the fierce Vikings began to raid the northern coast of Scotland. They took over large parts of the Pictish kingdom such as Orkney, Shetland and Sutherland. The invaders smashed many Pictish strongholds. Historians also believe that the Picts lost a series of battles, and kings in the struggle for territory and domination.

By 843, however, the Picts had united their lands with those of Dal Riata and accepted as their king Kenneth mac Alpin, the King of the Scots. There are various stories to explain how this happened but one likely explanation is that Kenneth mac Alpin was descended from the Royal Pictish line through his mother. Since the Picts were a matriarchal society, mac Alpin was probably entitled to join the two kingdoms.

Sadly, however, within a few generations of the uniting of the two kingdoms the unique language and culture of the Picts was lost.