Picts
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Iona and the Vikings
The island of Iona lies on the edge of Scotland. Its eastern side is less than a mile from the south-western tip of the isle of Mull, and if you were to sail due west from the other side, the next piece of land would not be encountered for some 2,000 miles (one of the Continue reading
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Constantin, son of Uurguist/son of Fergus
My recent article, Kings in the North, noted that at the time of the first “Viking” onslaught (see also Arrival of the Northmen), Constantin son of Uurguist was the king of Picts while there was less certainty around what was happening in Dal Riada. A little further south in Northumbria, Aethelred, son of Aethelwald Moll, Continue reading
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Arrival of the Northmen
The portentous weather and astronomical events we looked at in Bad Weather, Bad Omens continued into the last decade of the 8th century with what is perhaps the most infamous of all happening in the year 793. Recounted in a number of sources[1] the gist is that there were flashes of fire in the skies Continue reading
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Kings in the North
The Northern Monarchies in the late 8th Century. In the last article I looked at some of the descriptions of bad weather and bad omens from the second half of the 8th century in northern Britain. This post will look at the political landscape during that time, not an easy task with the Irish Annals Continue reading
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Bad Weather, Bad Omens
In the years following the death of Onuist, King of Picts, in 761, the sources contain much less about Pictish affairs than we saw in the first half of the century. However any gaps seem to be filled with descriptions of the weather – and particularly bad weather – along with astrological and natural or Continue reading
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Picts, Britons and Anglo-Saxons: The Supremacy of Onuist, Part II
By the year 741, the land north of the Forth-Clyde line, including that of the Dal Riadan Scots, was under the authority of Onuist, King of the Picts. To the south lay the territories of the two other powers of the time: the Northumbrian English and the Strathclyde Britons. This post will take a brief Continue reading
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Picts and Gaels: The Supremacy of Onuist, Part I
In 723, finally successful after years of striving to become overking of Dal Riada, Selbach had been the latest ruler to enter a clerical life. We last mentioned him in the post Nechtan mac Derilei: King Naiton of the Picts just as he handed over power to his son Dungal, before moving on to events Continue reading
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Dun Nechtain, 685
The narrative of history occasionally tells of battles whose outcome can justifiably claim to have determined the future. One such battle took place on 20 May 685 somewhere in what is now Scotland, between the Northumbrian English, led by their king Ecgfrith (Ecgfrið), and the Picts, led by Bridei, son of Beli. It is usually Continue reading
The Northern Tapestry 