The Church as principal vehicle for the progressive Gaelicisation of Pictland
In recent years an increasing flow of evidence seems to support a gradual spread of Gaelic through Pictish
territory, rather than a sudden loss of culture after a takeover of Picts by Scots. An effort is made here to
trace ways in which this progressive Gaelicisation may largely be attributed to the contemporary work of the
Church. As space does not allow discussion covering the whole of Pictland from the Orkneys to the Forth,
evidence is directly drawn from Northeast Scotland as a ‘control’ area and used comparatively with Fortriu,
centred on Forteviot. Further work in a wider spectrum, based on this evidence, might produce interesting
results.
It is helpful first to draw a larger picture connecting the Church with royal foundations: at the beginning of
the period marked by the Columban mission to the Northern Picts, one such as the fortress of Bridei
(munitio Brudei, d.585), is unlikely to have had any developed form of Christian building (Alcock, 1984);
but around 100 years later there is evidence supporting the foundation of churches in association with
Pictish royal centres (Anderson, 1980, Henderson 1967, Hudson 1994). As early as 678 Trumwine was
‘bishop to those Picts . . . subject to English rule’ at Abercorn, south of the Forth (Bede, HE IV, 12).
However in 685 King Ecgfrith led an army into Pictish country (HE IV, 26) and his defeat and death at
the battle of Nechtansmere near Dunnichen, Forfarshire accelerated Pictish independence from Northumbria.
Although a break from Anglian domination in church matters resulted from the battle, it was not until 717
that there appears the first recorded instance of a Pictish king taking the Church under royal patronage.
At the request of King Nechtan, son of Derilei (706-726, d.732), architects were sent from Wearmonth
to ‘build a stone church . . in the Roman style’ (HE V, 21). Certainly by the mid-9th century Forteviot
in Strathearn was the chief royal centre of the Pictish kingdom, featuring a richly carved stone arch with
central short cross, which suggests the presence of a royal chapel (Alcock, 1984), and a royal hall or
palace where Kenneth son of Alpin, first king of combined kingdoms of Picts and Scots died (‘in palacio,
858’, Anderson, 1973).
the Forteviot arch
During Kenneth’s rule of both kingdoms, particularly after the translation of the relics of Columba to his
royal foundation at Dunkeld, 848/9, Gaelic would become the language of Alba. It had already become
a language of learning and writing, albeit bilingual, in Pictland before his reign.
Four elements mark bilingual literacy via the Church during the 7th and 8th centuries: Class II stones in a
Christian tradition, using pre-Christian symbols; ogham inscriptions; plain incised crosses alongside ogham
or alone and ‘kil’ (cill-) placenames (Taylor, 1996). All provide unquestionable links with a Pictish Church,
while ecclesiastical and agricultural placenames continue to evolve as Gaelic adaptations are added up to
the 13th century (Fraser, 1987).
Most potent evidence of a thriving Church in 8th century Pictland is firstly the large number of sculptured
stones whose art derives from monastic culture, erected following Nechtan’s Romanization of the Pictish
Church (Henderson, 1967, 1987). Class II stones bear elaborate crosses on one side while maintaining
relief form Pictish symbols, perhaps as an attempt at legitimisation. Yet by the reign of Constantin
(c789-820), at Forteviot not only is that king’s name inscribed on the free-standing Dupplin cross, but any
attempt at placating a pagan minority with Pictish symbolism has been abandoned (Foster, 1996).
In fact there appears to be a concerted effort to use the royal connection to spread the Christian word.
The Elgin Class II cross slab shows Christ alongside falconry symbolism (Carrington, 1996), a regal pursuit
as meaningful to the population as a griffin motif in royal funerary art would have been on the St Andrews
sarcophagus (Henderson, 1994). By the late 9th century via Sueno’s Stone, a Class III monolith at Forres
displaying a Christian message, ranked horsemen, but no pagan symbols, Kenneth follows in the footsteps
of Constantin’s Dupplin proclaiming victory in battle and thanksgiving to God (and doubtless Columba), in
in what David Sellar sees as a royal inauguration ceremony below a giant cross on Sueno’s west face
(Sellar, 1993).
In areas where Class II cross-slabs are notably more numerous than Class I, such as in Angus, Forfar,
Perth and Fife, the presence of a fully Christian Pictish establishment is clear; but beyond the Mounth in
Aberdeenshire, where Class I stones vastly outnumber Class II, the separate practice of cross-incision
may have substituted for fully-developed Class II stones during the sixth and seventh centuries. These
are called by Dr Henderson (1987) Class IV: cross-incised stones ‘with no other ornament’. They may
even have sufficed for a ‘conservative populace’ (Inglis, 1987). Only at Monymusk were cross-incised
stones followed by a so-called Class II cross-slab, itself not fully progressed from Class I incision.
In Moray, where classes I, II and III exist, alongside one known free-standing cross - unusual for
North Pictland - there is new evidence for a long-standing ecclesiastical foundation at Kinneddar on
a par with Forteviot or Kilrymonth (St. Andrews), perhaps as early as the mid-eighth century
(Dransart, 1994).
Secondly, a strong case is proposed by Dr Ritchie for early dissemination of ideas by the Pictish Church
through the use of ogham as an Irish influence, rather than one of Iona (contra Smyth, 1984). With its
3rd-5th century origins where Irish was spoken, in Pictland ogham appears in sixth to eighth century
contexts (Ritchie 1987, Jackson 1955). This compares with the use of Irish-roman script on Pictish
stones such as Fordoun [P Idarnoin] of 7th century date (Dyack, 1944) and the ‘Drosten Stone’ at St
Vigeans [‘drosten ipe uoret ett forcus’] which both Miss Okasha and Dr Clancy fix at ‘839x842, the dates
of the reign of Uurad son of Bargoit‘ (Clancy 1993, Okasha 1985, 1996, Jackson 1955). A variant
peculiar to the Pictish Church, borrowed ogham seldom uses Irish unless one allows marginal use of ‘mac’,
son of (Forsyth, 1995a), but exploits an Irish alphabet to portray Pictish names often within a Latin context.
This multi-cultural incongruity is seen at its most ‘Pictish’ where V is substituted for the Irish C sound in
recently-discovered Pictish ‘vvrohht’ (Doric ‘vracht’, Eng. wrought, Lat. me fecit) on at least one Class II
stone, at Dyce and possibly in the interchangeable use of the ogham X instead of crroscc, Ir.Gael. cross
written out in full, as on stones at Aboyne, Afforsk, Bressay and Newton (Forsyth, pers. comm. 1998).
cross-incised stone from Mains of Afforsk
Thirdly, the rather under-catalogued remnants of cross-incised stones in Northern Pictland can be seen as an
indication of widespread Christian teaching by Gaelic-speaking missionaries in 6th/7th centuries (Henderson
1987, Jackson 1972). In Aberdeenshire occurrences of early church dedications linked to a controversial
‘pre-Columban’ Brittonic mission are also widespread. While debate is still warm on activity in Northeast
Scotland of saints such as Brandan (Banff, Ruthven), Comgan (Turriff), Drostan (Deer, Aberdour), Marnan
(Marnoch, Aberchirder, Leochel), Moluag (Clatt, Clova, Lumsden, Mortlach, Rhynie), Maelrubha
(Applecross, Loch Maree), Nachlan (Tullich, Oldmeldrum) and Walloch (Glass, Tarland), the association of
cross-incised or simple cross-relief stones with all of these localities is remarkably clear. In addition, cross-
stones have been found in locations of known early foundations such as Botriphnie (Fumac), Culsalmond
(Serf), Dyce (Fergus), Fintray (Modan), Premnay (Caran), as well as in early ecclesiastical sites with no
proven founder, such as at Abersnithock, Barra, Bourtie, Dunecht and Inverurie (Apollinarius) (Browne,
1921, Henderson 1987, Ritchie 1911, Simpson 1935, Stuart 1856, 1867, Youngblood 1995).
carved stone from Dyce
Dr Taylor (1996) is convinced that placenames, particularly those containing cill- and both- elements, show
origins in the seventh century and possibly earlier of the location of a simple church or cell . He ties them in
with contemporaneous reference to patron saint Ethernan, d.669, as one means to substantiate dating.
While his research concentrates in Fife one might extrapolate to include the occurrence of IDDARRNON
or its abbreviations (DDOAREN, DDARRNNN) in ogham in locations where all three elements exist, such
as Brodie, Brandsbutt, Fordoun, Newton and Scoonie (personal research).
carved stone at Newton House
King Giric (878-889) ‘gave liberty to the Church, which was in servitude up to that time after the custom and
fashion of the Picts’, (Scots Chronicle, Skene, 1867, 1887). In 906 King Constantin and Bishop Cellach
swore on Scone’s Hill of Faith to ‘keep the laws . . .of the faith and rights of the churches. . .in the same
manner as the Irish’ (Poppleton MS). By that time Ionan céli Dé reform had begun and the Gaelic language
must have been in full use by kings, noblemen and the skilled classes in former Pictland, with diminishing
enclaves of Pictish survival (Wormald, 1996).
There appears a rationale for the concept of domination and utter extinction of the Picts by the ‘might is right’
attitude of their aggressors, the Gaelic Scots, with consequent purging of all Pictish lifestyle, customs and
language. A passage noted (Cowan, 1981) in the Poppleton Chronicle (Skene, 1867), a post-780 kinglist,
translated into 10th century Gaelic from materials contemporary with the 9th (Anderson, 1973), shows the
self-righteous attitude of an already victorious race for a ‘people expelled for its sins from its promised land’
(Wormald, 1996):
God deemed (Picts) deserving of being deprived of their inheritance
‘by reason of their wickedness,
because they not only spurned the mass
and commandment of the Lord,
but in right of justice
would not be put on a level with others’.
From within the security of an accepted (Columban) faith, its message proclaims a holy right to Gaelicise
Pictland, and to subdue a previously superior and independent people.
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