A guide to the history of Caithness

The Picts

Evidence of the people known as the Picts can be found all over Scotland in the form of buildings, names, art and jewellery. In truth we know relatively little about them compared to for example the Romans. Whenever we have a lack of information about something it gives rise to speculation and imagination, filling in the gaps in our knowledge. This is exactly what has happened to the legacy of the Picts. They have become a romanticized people famed for their military sophistication who stood in defiance of invaders and mysteriously disappeared in the second half of the first millennia AD. Much of the information we have about them comes from second hand anecdotal evidence recorded by various historical writers of the time. Their impressions could be biased or simply on speculation alone.

Let’s stick with what we know first. The Picts were a group of late Iron Age and early mediaeval people who dominated much of Eastern and Northern Scotland. The name Pict is an invention of the Romans, Picts is the Latin for ‘Painted’ and there are many references to them decorating their bodies. Although a mighty war like people, they also developed a highly sophisticated culture by the late Iron Age and early medieval period. Stones with Pictish engravings can be found all over Scotland demonstrating their sophistication. From many of the artefacts found form the period we say with confidence that they had the desire and capacity to produce impressive structures like Crannogs or Brochs. Tools and jewellery from the period show they had the time and ability to produce things well beyond the requirements of basic living.

Royal bloodlines passed through the mother. A Pictish King would be succeeded by their brothers, nephews or cousins traced by the female line not by their sons. This tradition is not something heard of in many other cultures.

Writing in 731, The Venerable Bede believes the Picts originally came from Scandinavia to Ireland looking for land. They were sent to mainland Britain where over centuries they distributed themselves over Northern and Eastern Scotland with many different Tribes and Kings.

One of the Kingdoms was called ‘Cait’ which comprised of modern day Caithness and Sutherland. It was the Picts who left the Broch and Crannog remains here over the land along with establishing settlements which still exist today.

The tribes of Scotland fought amongst themselves for centuries gaining or losing land with military victories or defeats. They lived in family groups answering to their King, hunted dear or wild boar, sang songs of their culture and became artists. They engraved stones depicting hunting, music or battles many of which can still be seen today. It is from these things that we base much of our knowledge of these people. Writing was not something which was widely used to document things till later on.

During this time it would not be fair to refer to them all as a single people. It was not until the threat of invasion that they started to resemble a single kingdom. The continental invaders in the form of the Romans forced the Picts to stand together to maintain their lands.

They had always been effective in battle but never before had they faced such a formidable enemy. The Picts were originally a sea faring people, the Romans feared the Pictish navy in the wild seas around Britain. Rome had a strong hold on what is modern day England and sought to expand northwards. The Romans more often than not defeated the tribes of the north in battle but never managed to gain full control of the land. In the third century AD the Roman General Agricola slaughtered up to 10,000 Picts but victories like this did not mean overall control. The Picts used their knowledge of the land and fearsome tactics to wage a guerrilla war against the legions. Eventually Hadrian decided that it was not a land worth the trouble the Picts caused him. He built the wall which bears his name to keep the tribesmen out.

For centuries the Picts attacked the wall occasionally breaking southward into England before being repulsed back. By 400 AD the Roman control of Britain was withering and died out. This was only to be replaced by new threats to the Pictish Kingdoms. They fought the Scots who established themselves in the West in 500 AD, the Vikings and Norse men from the north and the Angles from the South.

In 685 AD the Picts fought in a decisive battle against the expanding Angle kingdom of King Oswui. The Picts were victorious, had they been defeated, the Angles would have gained control over most of Scotland and it would have been incorporated into the Angle Kingdom. Scotland would never have existed. As it happened the Angles never recovered to form any real threat to the Picts again. So it was in fact the Picts who created the north south divide which still exists today in Britain.

The Gaels had established themselves in the west of Scotland along with Christianity. The new religion had been on the rise for some time with missionaries like Columba. The Picts and the Gaels merged through marriage and religion. In 878 AD the Pictish King was murdered by a Gael, over the next century the Picts as a people/kingdom/nation died out. There was no great battle or slaughter to mark the end of the Picts they simply disappeared. Whilst the Pictish kings, kingdoms, culture, religion and language died out, their bloodlines and physical monuments survive.

Along with Christianity came the skill of writing, only after the Pictish people had ceased to exist did people start documenting events, stories or laws in north Britain. Unfortunately the Picts just missed out on the documentation of their people and history. However they leave behind a partially blank sheet which has been filled in to form a more romanticized full picture of the people who once dominated Scotland and defied the Romans.