An early Irish origin myth gives 'Cruithne' as the eponymous ancestor of the Picts. In this myth it is said that the seven sons of Cruithne gave their names to the seven divisions of the Pictish kingdom. The names of the seven sons were Fib, Fidach, Foltlaig, Fortrenn, Caitt, Ce and Circinn. Fib is equated with Fife, the site of Fidach is uncertain, the others being Athfotla, Fortriu, Caithness, Aberdeenshire and Angus respectively. Regardless of the accuracy of the myth, these seven divisions did exist historically within Pictish territories.
It is interesting to note that Athfotla, ie Atholl, is equated with one of the sons, Foltlaig. Athfotla means 'new Ireland' and an area once identified as being occupied by the Picts, Argyll, is omitted entirely from the divisions of the Pictish Kingdom. So it seems that this creation myth came at a time when the Dalriada kingdom was already in place in the Argyll area.
There is also a possibility that the Picts were of Gaulish descent. The Pictones, sometimes given as Pectones, were a Gaulish tribe to be found on the Bay of Biscay south of the Loire.
The first ever written record of the people known as the Picts came from Roman sources. In 297 A.D. the orator Eumenius referred to the Britons as 'already being accustomed to the Picti and Hiberni as enemies', implying that they had been making their presence felt for some time.
The people we call the Picts never used such a term for themselves. Scotland at that time was made up of tribal peoples who identified themselves simply by the name of their tribe. The idea of kings and kingdoms was only beginning to come into being.
Concerning the tribal identity of the peoples who came to be called the Picts, one reference came from a Roman in 310 A.D. who mentions "the Caledones and other Picts". There is some controversy over this translation,others giving it as "the Caledones, Picts and others". Depending on which translation you accept, this could either imply that the Caledonians were Pictish, or that the Caledones and Picts were only two of several tribes in the area.
Other tribal names of early Scotland, of Celtic root, include: Caereni, (people of the sheep) Lugi, (of the raven) Smertae (the 'smeared ones') and Decantae (nobles). Besides the Caledonii (the 'hard ones'?) were the Vacomagi and Venicones. Other tribes included the Epidii on the west coast and the Damnonii, Novantae and Selgovae further south. In later times a number of these tribes merged to form what became the 'Pictish kingdom'.
It was not long after this point that the influence of the Picts began to be felt in the north of the country. It is also from this point that confusion can set in. While the Caledonians were the power in the north, the Romans called the country Caledonia. So when the Picts came into power they likewise called the country Pictavia. The people were also then called Picts. At the same time the Irish were still calling them Cruithne. In Watson's own words: "it is important to keep in view that while all Picts were Cruithne, all Cruithne were not Picts".
The Picts were therefore one tribe amongst many others who happened to gain control over a particular area. They did not gain control over the areas in Ireland that the Irish Cruithne or non-Gaelic tribes lived on. Therefore, the Irish Cruithne were not Picts and should never be called such.
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ALL of Scotland is divided into three parts - three distinct and easily discernible geographical regions that have provided three distinct types of Scotsman. It is important to keep this in mind because most people imagine Scotland as being divided across the center into Highlands in the north and Lowlands in the south. The southern part of Scotland, where it borders with England, is the easiest to describe, because this is a region much less elevated and rugged than the Highlands.It consists largely of a wild moorland plateau traversed by rolling valleys and broken by mountainous outcroppings that rise to substantial heights. A few summits in this area exceed 2,500 feet in elevation. The border, which is marked mainly by the Cheviot Hills, has been a remarkably stable one over a long period of history. While the border itself has been stable, the inhabitants of this hilly border region have not! The borderers, as they were known, a hardy fighting people who guarded Scotland's frontier with England, |
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were always feuding and fighting among themselves when they were not harassing the English across the border. They have provided some of the best known Scottish surnames - the Armstrongs, Elliots, Kers, Scotts, Douglases, Hepburns, Bruces and Johnstons among them. While their role in Scottish history was crucial, they do not concern us directly because they are different people to the Highlanders. Beyond the border region lie the Scottish Lowlands. This area is usually described as a narrow belt running east-west and comprising about one tenth of the area of Scotland. However, it also sweeps northwards up the east coast of the country. The Lowland border with the Highlands begins in the west at Dumbarton (on the north bank of the River Clyde) and progresses northwards and eastwards to embrace an eastern plain which stretches from Fife. It then passes through the rich Carse of Gowrie, up past Aberdeen and then sweeps round the northeast shoulder of Scotland and along the edge of the Moray Firth. It continues on past Nairn right up to Inverness itself, which is (and always has been) a "frontier" town, where Highlanders were not particularly welcome. |
This triangular Lowland area made up the heartland of Scotland, and contained the national capital from the days of Kenneth MacAlpin onwards, who moved his seat of government from the western Highlands to Scone in Perthshire. Later it was moved to Dunfermline and finally to Edinburgh, which lies at some distance from the Highlands. The Highlanders always resented this movement of their royal line to what they considered an alien environment and inferior people. The third geographical region was the great mountainous mass commonly called simply the Highlands. More than one half of the surface of Scotland is occupied by this region - the most rugged landscape on the island of Great Britain. Consisting of parallel mountain chains with a general N.E.- S.W.trend and broken by deep ravines and valleys, the Highlands of Scotland are noted for their scenic grandeur. Precipitous cliffs, moorland plateaus, mountain lakes, sea lochs, swift flowing streams, and dense thickets are common to the Highlands, the most sparsely inhabited section of Scotland. Of the two dominant mountain ranges, one runs north-south along the axis of Scotland from Loch Lomond up to the Pentland Firth and forms the great backbone of Scotland. The other is a range curving off northeastwards to form the Grampians.
The Grampian range was never a formidable barrier to those penetrating the Highlands, because of the number of passes over it.The east end of the range opens onto a plain, thus making it very easy to simply bypass it.
The central Highlands, however, were much more formidable; and the only practical way to penetrate them was through the Great Glen, which runs from Inverness in the northeast to Fort William further south on the west coast. While it was comparatively easy to penetrate up into the north of Scotland along its low-lying east coast, it was a different story to venture into the Great Glen. Traveling this route led the fearless explorer further and further away from civilization and safety, and into an unknown world which basically remained cut off from the rest of Scotland until the aftermath of the Jacobite uprising of 1745-46.
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