Important Events in Hebridean History

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The centuries between 400 and 800 AD are often referred to as 'the Pictish period'. This name describes the culture developed by the later Iron Age tribes of much of mainland Scotland, with its heartland in the east and north of Scotland. It is best known for its intriguing Pictish symbols, although there was a complex and sophisticated society and political system behind this. The Outer Hebrides clearly came within the influence of Pictish Scotland, and evidence of Pictish-style symbol stones, burial practices and material culture has been recognised in the Islands, but to what extent the Islands can be considered fully Pictish is debatable.

Interestingly, a small number of Pictish-style square cairn burials have now been identified, for example at Aird ma' Ruibhe, at the southern tip of the Island of Berneray, and at Cille Pheadair, in South Uist. This one has been rebuilt at the entrance to Kildonan museum. Do these reflect changing burial practices amongst a stable population, or do they represent graves of incomers from the mainland, as the lady buried at Cille Pheadair was.

Keith Branigan

Equally, a small number of Pictish symbol stones is known from the Outer Hebrides, the best example of which is this stone from Pabbay. It shows the crescent and V-rod symbol over a curvilinear flower symbol. A Christian cross has been incised into the top of the stone subsequently.

A good number of houses of this period have been preserved, because they were built inside the shells of pre-existing brochs. Examples have been investigated in Berie broch, Uig, and at Dùn Mhulan, South Uist, and indeed secondary occupation probably continued in most brochs until around 800 AD.

Settlements of this period also occur as villages, with free-standing houses drawing on the long-established tradition of sunken-floored roundhouse building. Some have been excavated in the past at the Udal, North Uist, but in 1993 a village of remarkably well-preserved houses was exposed after a storm at Bostadh, Great Bernera. The footprint of some of the excavated houses has been laid out on the site, but a well-furnished reconstruction of one of the houses gives a superb understanding of life in a Pictish-period house.

At the same time, a new kingdom of Dalriada was established in what is now Argyll, by groups of people called 'Scots' who had migrated from Antrim in Northern Ireland. They brought with them their Irish culture and language, which is commonly understood to be the origins of the Scots Gaelic language. Over time the Scots repeatedly came into conflict with the Picts, until the two nations on the mainland were finally united under the Scottish King Kenneth MacAlpin in the 840s. The Outer Hebrides remained on the periphery of both these peoples, but must have been significantly influenced by both.

David Simon

During this period Christianity arrived in the Outer Hebrides. Placenames such as Pabbay (priest's isle), Taransay (St Taran's isle), Kildonan (church of St Donan), indicate a religious presence in the Islands prior to 800 AD. During the 6th century AD many priests from the monastic schools of Ireland travelled heroically throughout Dalriada and beyond, establishing chapels and hermitages. Of crucial importance in the spreading of the new faith in the Outer Islands were the founding of Iona Abbey by Colm Cille (Columba) in around 567, and of Applecross in Torridon by Maelrubha slightly later.

Two outstanding sites with well-preserved early Christian oratories (tiny chapels) are on the remote, offshore islands of North Rona and the Flannan Isles, to the north and west of Lewis respectively. These are associated with St Ronan and St Flannan, both of whom appear to have been wandering peregrini of this period. In many other cases, later medieval ecclesiastic establishments may have developed from early foundations of which little now survives, and this may be true for Cille Bharra, Isle of Barra, Howmore, South Uist, Teampull Mhoire, Benbecula, and Eaglais na h-Aoidhe, Isle of Lewis, amongst many others.

Cille Bharra, Keith Branigan

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