THE HISTORY OF THE AREA
The Dark Ages
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THE HISTORY OF THE AREA
The Dark Ages
The PictsEaster Ross undoubtebly formed the heartland of one of the sub-kingdoms, for the Picts have left their mark prominently in the area around Tain. Their greatest memorials are the so-called Pictish symbol stones, unique sculptural records of a people about whom we still know so little. The earliest carvings in the district are the simple incised stones at Rosskeen and Nonakiln near Invergordon, and the leaping salmon at Edderton, which date probably from the 5th or early 6th Century AD.
It was only in the middle of the 6th Century that St Columba established himself on Iona and began the process of conversion in the north. It was Columba himself who is recorded as having travelled to meet and confer with, and eventually convert, the pagan king of the Northern Picts. At the end of the 7th Century, St Maelrubha came from Bangor in Ulster to found a monastery at Applecross, and new monasteries were founded in the east to further the mission-work, one at Mid-Fearn towards the head of the Dornoch Firth and another at Rosemarkie in the Black Isle.
These monasteries flourished and drew local Picts into the Christian faith, this success being marked by the change in the character of the sculptured stones. Gone was the simplicity of the early symbol stones, to be replaced by an exuberant declaration of the sculptors' belief in Christ. The superb carved slabs from Nigg, Shandwick and Hilton of Cadboll represent the peak of the sculptors' craft and speak of the vitality and dynamism of Pictish culture at this time, the original masterpieces from which others drew inspiration. Together with other stones from Kincardine, Edderton and Tarbat they demonstrate the energy and wealth of Pictish culture in the lands of Easter Ross in the 7th and 8th Centuries.
But within decades of their being carved, Pictish culture was dying, beaten down by the hammer-blows of twin invaders: the Scots and the Vikings.
For more information about the Picts visit The Pictish Nation.
The Scots
The Annals of Ulster record a battle somewhere near Perth in 839 between the Picts and the Norsemen, in which the Pictish king, his brother, kinsmen and chief nobles were all slain. Left largely leaderless, the Picts passed swiftly under the control of Kenneth Mac Alpin, the king of the Scots of Dalriada, a smaller kingdom which occupied roughly the same area as modern Argyll. Kenneth was swiftly able to gain control of the southern kingdom, but the chronicles make it clear that he had to fight hard to exert any influence in the north. A rival Scots kindred, the Cenel Loairn, had challenged his own family the Cenel n Gabhran for the right to rule Dalriada, and had pushed up the Great Glen while Kenneth had moved eastwards. Before he could prevent them they had established their position in Moray and Ross and taken over the role of the old Pictish high kings in the north. Until the 13th Century their descendants were to challenge Kenneth's successors for the right to rule all Scotland.
These new settlers were Gaelic-speakers and it is the place-name map which shows their presence with greatest effect, for the vast majority of the names which litter it are of Gaelic origin.
The Vikings
Meantime the Norse were in turn pushing their colonies southwards from Orkney and the River Oykel came to represent the eventual southern limit of Norse power. Easter Ross became a border land, a unique zone where Picts, Scots and Norse intermingled and settled in an area where three cultures collided. The Tain peninsula had its attractions for all three peoples, but the Norse were determined to make it their own. By the early 890's Sigurd earl of Orkney, and his ally Thorstein, had won control of the country as far south as Loch Ness from their opponents, and when in c 892 Sigurd died in battle on the shores of the Oykel, his followers felt sufficiently sure of their control over the surrounding land, to bury their dead leader under a great barrow on a gravel terrace overlooking the Dornoch Firth at Cyderhall.
A few Norse colonists managed to establish themselves on the farmlands of the Tain peninsula. At Cadboll and Arboll they established bolstards, large, wealthy farms on the rich grainlands east of Tain. Another farm may have lain at Bindal, whose name means 'sheaf-valley'. Shandwick, too, has a Norse name and there were other settlements throughout the district whose names are now lost. On the moors behind Tain have been found the foundations of buildings which may be Norse longhouses. The very name 'Dingwall' which signifies a Norse meeting-place, implies that the number of colonists must have been substantial.
Towards the end of the 10th century, Sigurd the Stout pushed the limits of his power south into Moray once more. After his death in 1014 in the battle of Clontarf near Dublin, his youngest son, Thorfinn Raven-feeder, resumed his father's work and brought all the lands from the Dornoch Firth to Inverness firmly under Norse control. He is even said to have built a fortress for himself in Moray to overawe the natives of the district. But the Scottish king, Macbeth, who was descended from the Cenel Loairn rulers in Moray, succeeded in establishing one of his chieftains, albeit temporarily, in Caithness, which was the very heart of Thorfinn's domain. This success provoked a swift and decisive response from the Norseman and his ships and men were sent southwards to drive the Scots from Ross. The result was a great sea-battle off Tarbat Ness, where a fresh Scottish fleet was destroyed by the Viking longships. From then until his death in 1064, no one dared challenge Thorfinn's control over the firthlands.
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