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Celtic tribes of the Highlands and Islands of Scotland

For an introduction to the Celtic tribes of Britain, see the main page for Celtic Tribes of the British Isles.

In Britain as far south as the Firths of Forth and Clyde and the Antonine Wall, the pattern is that of tribes divided from each other by mountains. Those of the far north and west - protected by the Grampian Mountains - had little contact with the Romans, so it is not surprising that their names are not recorded again after appearing in Ptolemy's Geography. This does not necessarily mean that they disappeared in the Roman period, or were welded into one great confederation under the more often noted Caledones, regardless of what Roman authors imagined.

Picts

In 305 Constantius Chlorus claimed a victory over the "Caledones and other Picts".^{1C. E. V. Nixon and B. Saylor Rodgers (ed. and trans.), In praise of later Roman emperors: the Panegyrici Latini (1994), VI: Panegyric of Constantine, pp. 226-7 and note 27.} This is the first reference to Picti, a late Roman nickname for all the northern British tribes beyond their borders. It means painted in Latin. Isidore of Seville tells us that it refers to the use of plant dye to create tattoos.^{2The Etymologies of Isidore of Seville, ed. and trans. S.A. Barney, W. J. Lewis, J. A. Beach and O. Bergho (2006), p. 386 (XIX.xxiii.7).} The plant dye was from woad. When the Romans first encountered the people of Britain, they noted the British habit of dying their bodies with woad, which left a blue colour.^{3Caesar, Gallic Wars, V.14; Pomponius Mela's Description of the World, ed. Frank E. Romer(1998), p. 116 (book 3, chapter 51).} Other colours could be derived from iron ochre. A Byzantine historian, pulling together what he could glean from writers centuries earlier about the British, mentioned the tattooing of their bodies with iron-red. This was probably taken from a verse by Claudian which could be so translated.^{4Jordanes, Getica, II.14; Claudian, The Gothic War, XXVI.} Even in 208 the Britons were still said to tattoo their bodies with coloured designs and drawings of all kinds of animals. ^{5Herodian, The History of the Roman Empire, III.14.7.} As the Britons within the Roman Empire gradually adopted Roman ways, those outside it would be easily distinguished by their tattoos.

The Irish were nicknamed Scoti in Late Roman Britain, which name was taken up by Gaelic speakers in Scotland. The Late Roman nickname Picti was likewise adopted by speakers of Pictish. The names Picti, Scoti and Caledonii were squeezed onto the tiny area north of Hadrian's Wall on the Late Roman Peutinger Map. The Picts were not a tribe. The name began as a collective term for all tribes north of the Roman border, which shifted between Hadrian's Wall and the Antonine Wall. The latter ran between the Firths of Clyde and Forth. In the 730s AD Bede reported that the the Firth of Clyde had originally been the southern border of the Picts. ^{6Bede, The Ecclesiastical History of the BritishPeople, ed. J. McClure and R. Collins (1994), p. 12.} Within 8th-century Pictland we find reference to various peoples, kingdoms or districts. ^{7J. E. Fraser, From Caledonia to Pictland: Scotland to 795 (2009), pp. 44-9.}

The northern and north-western area of Scotland was Gaelic-speaking in historic times, as indicated by the distribution of Gaelic place-names in Scotland. Care is needed though in the interpretation of place-name evidence. Pictish place-names were Gaelicized, as Gaelic became the dominant language of Alba. Conversely the Pictish place-name element *pet(t) (land-holding, portion, share) was borrowed into Scottish Gaelic and exported to Lothian. However the concentration of Pit- or Pet- names falls in the coastal and riverine areas (i.e. those most suitable for agriculture) of the eastern Highlands. The distribution of Pictish symbol-stones (6th-9th centuries AD) is remarkably similar, though they also occur in the Western, Orkney and Shetland Isles. For maps of both distributions see Whittington (1997).^{8J.T. Koch (ed.), Celtic Culture: a historical encyclopedia (2006), pp. 1444-8, 1592-3; G. Whittington, Placenames and the Settlement Pattern of Dark-Age Scotland, Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, vol. 106 (1977), pp. 99-110.} James Wilson notes that a particular haplotype of Y-DNA R1b-L21/S145 (str47 in John McEwan's chart and generally known as the Scots Modal) appears most densely in the area with Pictish symbols, and so may be of Pictish derivation.^{9A. Moffat and J. Wilson, The Scots: A Genetic Journey (2011).} The search goes on for an SNP that would identify a related haplogroup. L1065 now looks promising.

Brochs

The north-eastern tip of Scotland is notable for its brochs - tall, round, stone-built, hollow-walled Iron Age tower-houses. Brochs are also found in the Orkney and Shetland Islands, Skye and the Outer Hebrides. Brochs were often sited close to the sea. They evolved from earlier hollow-walled defences, one in a ring-fort on Shetland dated to the 6th century BC; associated pottery links it to Late Bronze Age Brittany. Promontory forts in the western isles with hollow walls were probably also built by new arrivals, in this case from southern England. It seems that settlers felt the need for defence against sea-borne attack. Brochs emerged on Shetland and Uist around the 4th century BC and slightly later in the Western Isles. While some brochs in NE Caithness show cultural links to Shetland, further south it appears that local people adopted the broch. In general broch-building societies appear multi-cultural. Some probably had chiefs of distant origin, but subordinates of more local origin. Most brochs were built between 200 BC and 100 AD and some remained in use as late as the 6th century AD. It was during this main burst of broch-building that a new type of quern appeared among the broch-builders. This adjustable disc quern was unknown elsewhere in Britain, but found in Iberia, and so hints at continuing contact with Brittany, which had trading links to Iberia.^{10E.W. MacKie, The broch cultures of Atlantic Scotland: origins, high noon and decline: part 1: Early Iron Age beginnings c. 700-200 BC, Oxford Journal of Archaeology, vol. 27, no. 3 (2008), pp. 261-279; part 2: The Middle Iron Age: high noon and decline c.200 BC - AD 550, Oxford Journal of Archaeology, vol. 29, no 1. (2010), pp. 89-117; Z. Outram et al.,The integration of chronological and archaeological information to date building construction: an example from Shetland, Scotland, UK, Journal of Archaeological Science, vol. 37, no.11 (November 2010), pp. 2821-2830; J. T. Koch, An Atlas for Celtic Studies (2007), p. 106, section 30 and map 15.1. Map shown on this page taken from A. Konstam, The Forts of Celtic Britain (2006).}

Intriguingly a structure similar to a broch has been discovered in Central Spain. Bronze Age mounds dot the plain of La Mancha. The excavation of one - the Motilla del Azuer (Daimiel, Ciudad Real) - revealed a double-walled tower. It is earlier and more complex than any broch.^{11F. Molina et al., Recent fieldwork at the Bronze Age fortified site of Motilla del Azuer (Daimiel, Spain), Antiquity, vol.79, no. 306 (December 2005).} So it remains unclear whether the concept travelled, or whether this is a case of parallel development. In the first century BC, the Veneti of what is now southern Brittany were outstanding navigators, with a huge fleet of ships, with which they controlled traffic with Britain, until they were crushed by Caesar. So we may guess that they were at least the intermediaries in a movement of people, goods and ideas to the north. Traffic along the Atlantic seaboard continued through and after the Roman period. The elites of Argyll imported wine, dyes, spices and fine wares from Aquitaine in the early historic period. Adomnan's Life of Columba mentions a vessel fresh from Gaul arriving in Argyll.^{12Caesar, Gallic Wars, III.8,16; Adomnan, Vita S. Columba, 1.22; J. E. Fraser, From Caledonia to Pictland: Scotland to 795 (2009), pp. 172, 243. Adomnan says the Gallic ship had arrived at caput regionis (the head of the region), which could mean Kintyre (Ceann-tir - head of the land) or the capital of Argyll.}

• Caledonii, Calidoni, Calidones (Lat.), Kaledonioi (Gr.): Ptolemy reported that "From the Bay of Lemmanonia [Firth of Clyde] until the Varar estuary [Moray Firth] dwell the Caledonians, above whom is the Caledonian forest." Their name is preserved in Dunkeld (9th-century Dun Chaillden) and Schiechallon.^{13Claudius Ptolemy, The Geography, II.2; J. T. Koch, An Atlas for Celtic Studies (2007), maps 15.2 and 21.2; J. E. Fraser, From Caledonia to Pictland: Scotland to 795 (2009), p. 20.} They became so notable in fighting the Romans that the latter called the whole of North Britain beyond their border Caledonia. Tacitus described their reddish hair and large limbs. He also detailed the defeat of the Caledonians at Mons Graupius in 83 or 84 AD. He knew the name of one of their many leaders - Calgacus, meaning "swordsman".^{14Tacitus, Agricola, 11, 25, 29-37 and note 81.} In 305 Constantius Chlorus claimed a victory over the "Caledones and other Picts".^{15C. E. V. Nixon and B. Saylor Rodgers (ed. and trans.), In praise of later Roman emperors: the Panegyrici Latini (1994), VI: Panegyric of Constantine, pp. 226-7 and note 27.} Ammian records that in 367 AD that the Picts were divided into two nations, the Dicalidones and the Verturiones.^{16Ammianus Marcellinus, Roman History, trans. C.D. Yonge (1862), 27.8.5.} The Di-Calidones must be the double-Caledones i.e. two tribes of them. The tribal name seems derived from calet = hard, severe, austere, firm, tough, hardy, which appears in Celtic tribal and personal names elsewhere. Caledu, Calidu appear on coins of the Arverni and Galetes of Gaul and the latter people, the Kaletai ( = Caletae) of Ptolemy, with their settlement Juliobona Caletum now Lillebonne (Seine-Maritime, France) were presumably related at least in name to the Caledonii of Scotland. ^{17A.L.F Rivet and C. Smith, The Place-names of Roman Britain (1979), pp. 250, 290-1.}
• Carini, Caerini (Lat.), Kairenoi (Gr.): Western neighbours of the Cornavi, and so presumably lived in Sutherland. The Celtic tribal name means sheep people from *caero- 'sheep', especially "ram". ^{18Claudius Ptolemy, The Geography, II.2; ; A. Breeze, Three Celtic names: Venicones, Tuesis and Soutra, Scottish Language (2006); A.L.F Rivet and C. Smith, The Place-names of Roman Britain (1979), p. 286.}
• Carnonacae (Lat.), Karnonakai (Gr.): Lived north of the Creones.^{19Claudius Ptolemy, The Geography, II.2.} The name is similar to the Gaulish Carnutes, usually supposed to mean trumpet-people, from *carno (horn, trumpet), but it is possible that the Scottish tribe may have taken its name from its rocky surroundings, from the word that appears in Welsh as carn or cairn.^{20A.L.F Rivet and C. Smith, The Place-names of Roman Britain (1979), p. 301.}
• Catti?: The earliest Gaelic name for the Shetland Isles was Insi Catt, meaning either the cat islands, or refering to a tribe whose totem was the wild cat. The name survives in Caithness and in the Gaelic name for Sutherland (Cataibh, meaning among the Cats), two parts of what was once Caitt.^{21A. Breeze, Three Celtic names: Venicones, Tuesis and Soutra, Scottish Language (2006); J. T. Koch, An Atlas for Celtic Studies (2007), map 21.1; W. J. Watson, The Celtic Place-names of Scotland (2005).} Shetland was later taken by the Vikings and the present population of Shetland shows strong evidence of Scandinavian origin.^{22S. Goodacre et al., Genetic evidence for a family-based Scandinavian settlement of Shetland and Orkney during the Viking periods, Heredity, vol. 95 (2005), pp. 129–135.}
• Cornavi (Lat.), Kornavii (Gr.): lived at the extreme northern tip of Scotland.^{23Claudius Ptolemy, The Geography, II.2.} The name is derived from the Celtic root corn, meaning horn, which might refer to the north-eastern peninsula of Britain, or to worshippers of the horned deity Cernunnos.^{24A.L.F Rivet and C. Smith, The Place-names of Roman Britain (1979), p. 325.} This region is notable for its brochs.
• Creones (Lat.), Kreones (Gr.): Lived north of the Epidi.^{25Claudius Ptolemy, The Geography, II.2.} The formation of the name is Celtic, with the suffix -ones, but the meaning is unknown.^{26A.L.F Rivet and C. Smith, The Place-names of Roman Britain (1979), p. 326.}
• Decantes (Lat.), Dekantai (Gr.): Lived north of the Caledonii.^{27Claudius Ptolemy, The Geography, II.2.} The name comes from the Celtic root *dec- 'good, noble'. There were other Decantae or Decanti in North Wales.^{28A.L.F Rivet and C. Smith, The Place-names of Roman Britain (1979), p. 330.}
• Epidii: lived next to the Damnoni, by the promontory of Epidium [Kintyre].^{29Claudius Ptolemy, The Geography, II.2.} The name means people of the horse from Old Celtic equos = horse. The form here is P-Celtic epos. The people may have been horse-breeders, or the horse their tribal totem.^{30A.L.F Rivet and C. Smith, The Place-names of Roman Britain (1979), p. 360.} Although a connection with the Gallic horse-goddess Epona has been postulated, her worship is unattested outside the Roman Empire. Interestingly the equestrian theme remained after this area became part of the Gaelic-speaking Argyll (O.Ir. airir coastland + Goídel). The first king of Kintyre and Cowell of reasonable historicity is Domangart Réti, whose death in 507 AD is noted in the Irish Annals. Adomnán's Life of Saint Columba refers to Corcu Réti, meaning descendants of Réta, but réti (Early O. Ir.) or riata (its later form) generally denotes a riding horse. A separate kin-group which held sway in Islay seems an offshoot of the Dál Fiatach of Ireland (see Darini). By contrast the dominant kindred on Skye (Cenél nGartnait) begins with Pictish names, yet spent three years in exile in Ireland in the 660s. Another three kindreds ruled Lorn. After all these regions were welded together as the Gaelic Kingdom of Dál Riata around 700 AD, a genealogy was concocted giving all the kindreds a descent from an Irish Eochaid (horseman). Politically that bestowed parity among them, though the core continuity of the horse-tribe lay in Kintyre. Bede preserves a probably earlier origin myth which points to the primacy of the Corcu Réti. He claimed that Gaels came from Ireland under their leader Reuda. They are still called Dalreudini after this leader. How can we reconcile cultural continuity with a change of language? From at least the time of Bede, the explanation seemed simple: Gaels had invaded Argyll. Yet there is no archaeological evidence of this. Material influences seem to have flowed the other way. So the Cruithin mentioned above in Ireland may have been British incomers who mixed with Gaels and adopted Gaelic, while retaining links with kin in what is now Argyll and the Western Isles. Gaelic could have been introduced to Argyll and the Isles through a web of alliances, with threads of religion, politics and marriage. This is not to deny an Irish genetic element in the resulting mix. Dál Riata included territory in Ireland: the far north of what is now County Antrim, with a royal centre at Dunseverick and an eccesiastical one at Armoy, on the upper reaches of the River Bush.^{31J. E. Fraser, From Caledonia to Pictland: Scotland to 795 (2009), pp. 121, 146-148, 159-160, 203-6, 238-41; Bede, The Ecclesiastical History of the British People, ed. J. McClure and R. Collins (1994), p. 11; J.T. Koch (ed.), Celtic Culture: a historical encyclopedia (2006), pp. 555-7, 1593; A. Woolf, From Pictland to Alba 789-1070 (2007), p. 7; J. T. Koch, An Atlas for Celtic Studies (2007), map 20.2.}
• Lugi: Lived next to the Decantes and joined to the territory of the Cornavi. The name may mean raven people.^{32Claudius Ptolemy, The Geography, II.2; A. Breeze, Three Celtic names: Venicones, Tuesis and Soutra, Scottish Language (2006); A.L.F Rivet and C. Smith, The Place-names of Roman Britain (1979), p. 401.}
• Miathi (Celtic), Maeatae (Lat.), Maiatai (Gr.): Adomnán's Life of Columba mentions a battle by Áedán mac Gabráin, King of Dál Riata (574-609) against the Miathi.^{33Adomnán, Life of Columba, chap. 7.} This tribe does not appear in Ptolemy's Geography and may represent a tribal regrouping in response to the campaigns of Agricola. They may partly have sprung from the Votadini, who would have been divided by the Antonine Wall. Cassius Dio, describing the invasion of Caledonia by Septimus Severus in 208 AD, remarked that There are two principal races of the Britons, the Caledonians and the Maeatians.... The Maeatians live near the cross wall which cuts the island in two, and the Caledonians are behind them.^{34Cassius Dio, Roman History, 77.12.} Both of these tribes appear on the Peutinger Roman map of Britain. If the Maeatae had subsumed lesser tribes, that might explain their name, which could mean people of the larger part.^{35A.L.F Rivet and C. Smith, The Place-names of Roman Britain (1979), p. 404.} The name Dumyat at the western end of the Ochil Hills, overlooking Stirling, is probably derived from Dun Miathi - hill fort of the Miathi. It has the remains of a hill fort on its summit. Myothill, west of Falkirk above the Carron, also seems to preserve the tribal name. In the early medieval period the district on the Forth river plain including Iudeu (Stirling) was known as Manau or Manaw, remembered in the place-name Clackmannan.^{36J. E. Fraser, From Caledonia to Pictland: Scotland to 795 (2009), pp. 15-17.} It was sometimes called Manau Goddodin (see Votadini). The 5th-century Cunedda ap Edern, reputed progenitor of the royal dynasty of Gwynedd, is said to have been a chieftain of the Manaw Gododdin who brought his warband to north Wales to aid his cousins there to expel the Irish Uí Laitháin.^{37J.T. Koch, Celtic Culture: a historical encyclopedia (2006), pp. 518-9.} Geneticist James Wilson found that an unusual haplotype within Y-DNA R1b-L21 (str43 in John McEwan's chart), seems localised around Stirling and suggests that it reflects the Miathi.^{38A. Moffat and J. F. Wilson, The Scots: a genetic journey (2011), p. 138.} Three brochs were built within this area. The one at Leckie, near Stirling, is firmly dated to the 80s AD and the others appear of similar date. They could have been commissioned by local chiefs from the broch-builders of Atlantic Scotland. Or they could represent an influx of warrior bands from that region, recruited to protect the new frontier.^{39E.W. MacKie, The broch cultures of Atlantic Scotland: origins, high noon and decline: part 2: The Middle Iron Age: high noon and decline c.200 BC - AD 550, Oxford Journal of Archaeology, vol. 29, no 1. (2010), pp. 89-117 (92, 95); D. W. Harding, The Iron Age in Northern Britain: Celts and Romans, natives and invaders (2004), p.187.} That might explain the gold torcs found near Stirling dating to 300-100 BC. Two are made from twisted gold – a typical Scottish and Irish style. The others are more exotic. A tube-like torc was made in south-west France. The unique fourth torc, with its delicately-decorated looped ends, betrays craft skills from the Mediterranean. Are these heirlooms brought south by the Atlantic broch-builders?
• Orcoi?: Ptolemy mentions the Orcades islands, later known as Insi Orc and now known as Orkney.^{40Claudius Ptolemy, The Geography, II.2.} The orc- element means piglet in Middle Irish, but may mean wild boar here, perhaps a case of a place-name springing from a tribal one.^{41J.P. Mallory and D.Q. Adams, The Oxford Introduction to Proto-Indo-European and the Proto-Indo-Europeans (2006), p. 139; A. Breeze, Three Celtic names: Venicones, Tuesis and Soutra, Scottish Language (2006).} Alternatively, given that the Welsh word for dolphin means literally sea-pig, the name might refer to a marine mammal.^{42A.L.F Rivet and C. Smith, The Place-names of Roman Britain (1979), p. 433.} Orkney was later taken by Vikings. Its name was re-interpreted as Old Norse orkn (seal), which with the suffix ey (island) made sense as seal islands. The Norse Earldom of Orkney was established c. 850 AD and was held for the Norwegian (and later Danish) crown until it passed to Scotland in 1468. The present population of Orkney shows strong evidence of Scandinavian origin.^{43S. Goodacre et al., Genetic evidence for a family-based Scandinavian settlement of Shetland and Orkney during the Viking periods, Heredity, vol. 95 (2005), pp. 129–135.} From the 18th century Orkney Islanders were in demand by the Hudson’s Bay Company as explorers and trappers in Canada. Many married Native American women and elected to stay in Canada, but a few returning Orcadians brought back Native American wives and/or children of these marriages.^{44K. Gourlay, Scotland's Lost Braves, The Scotsman, 28th August 2001.}
• Smertae (Lat.), Smertai (Gr.) : Lived west of the Lugi.^{45Claudius Ptolemy, The Geography, II.2.} Various meaning for the tribal name have been suggested, including providers or far-sighted ones.^{46A.L.F Rivet and C. Smith, The Place-names of Roman Britain (1979), pp. 460-61.}
• Taecali (Lat.), Taixali (Gr.): Lived north of the Vacomagi. Their town was Devana.^{47Claudius Ptolemy, The Geography, II.2.} The tribal name may be derived from the Celtic divinity Taxis. The town-name reflects that of the river Deva (present-day Dee), which means 'goddess', a Celtic river-name also found in Wales.^{48K. Forsyth, Language in Pictland: the case against 'non-Indo-European Pictish' (Utrecht 1997), pp. 20-21; W.F.H. Nicolaisen, Scottish Place-Names, 2nd edn. (Edinburgh 2001) p. 229.}
• Vacomagi (Lat.), Ouakomagoi (Gr.): Lived next to the Caledonii. Their towns were Bannatia, Tamia and Tuesia. Ptolemy also records a temporary legionary fort in their territory as Pinnata camp i.e. camp of the feathered emblem [Inchtuthill, Tayside].^{49Claudius Ptolemy, The Geography, II.2.} The Vacomagi appear in the Ravenna Cosmography as Maromago. The Celtic meaning would be "inhabitants of the curved fields".^{50A.L.F Rivet and C. Smith, The Place-names of Roman Britain (1979), p. 484.}
• Venicones (Lat.), Venikones (Gr.): Lived south of the Vacomagi. Their town was Orrea.^{51Claudius Ptolemy, The Geography, II.2.} This town is presumed to be Horrea Classis (granary of the fleet), identified as a Roman fort situated near Monifieth. The tribal name may mean kindred hounds, which would identify them with the region of Maen Gwyngwn, mentioned in the early Welsh poem Y Gododdin, but more probably hunting hounds.^{52A.L.F. Rivet and C. Smith, The Place-Names of Roman Britain (1979), pp. 372-3, 491; J. T. Koch, The stone of the Wenicones, Bulletin of the Board of Celtic Studies 29 (1982), pp. 87-9; A. Breeze, Three Celtic names: Venicones, Tuesis and Soutra, Scottish Language (2006).}
• Verturiones (Lat.), Fortrinn (Gaelic), Waerteras (OE): Ammian records that in 367 AD that the Picts were divided into two nations, the Dicalidones and the Verturiones.^{53Ammianus Marcellinus, Roman History, trans. C.D. Yonge (1862), 27.8.5.} The latter appear in the post-Roman period as a Pictish people on the shores of the Moray Firth, who formed the core Pictish kingdom. Bridei son of Beli (d. 693) is the earliest noted of their kings. The tribal name seems to mean very powerful.^{54A. Woolf, From Pictland to Alba 789-1070 (2007), pp. 9-10; J. E. Fraser, From Caledonia to Pictland: Scotland to 795 (2009), pp. 50-51; J. T. Koch, An Atlas for Celtic Studies (2007), p. 32 and map 21.2; A.L.F. Rivet and C. Smith, The Place-Names of Roman Britain (1979), pp. 496-7.}

Notes

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