To really travel in time with our Wemyss ancestors, we must learn about the times in which they lived. Transporting ourselves back to their time and looking at the history of Scotland and the people of our ancestry aids a great deal in our understanding of what the lives of our earliest ancestors were like. What did they believe in? How did they spend their time? What was going on in "their world"? From a historical approach, we know that the Celts appeared in Scotland by the middle of the first millennium BC, during the Iron Age. It is also thought that the Celts became the governing race during the ?Second Iron Age,? 400-300 to 100 B.C. and that they imported La Tene culture, so called from the discoveries at a great Celtic settlement near Neuchatel.

The first people thought to live in Scotland were Iberians. They farmed the land, built ships, and made bronze tools and weapons. Celtic invaders taught the Iberians how to work with iron. The history of the Celtic people is rich in tradition and pride. The Druids organized their religion. It was a pagan religion which involved human sacrifice and appalled the Roman. Much can be read on the traditions of the Druids and the ancient religions.

A very interesting part of our Celtic and specifically our Pictish ancestry deals with the religion of Druidism. I have read a large number of books during my research and find that I could not possibly cover this topic sufficiently in the scope of this work. Therefore, as we are looking at the historical facts of the lives of our Celtic ancestors, I have chosen to include the following passage from Clans, Septs, and Regiments of the Scottish Highlands, pages 9-11.

Before the establishment of Christianity amongst the Picts the religion of the nation was Druidism. The origin of the name is wrapped in obscurity, but the Druidical religion seems to have included fire-worship, and involved a great deal of tribal religion akin to totemism or ancestor-worship. To this day in Scotland there are many evidences of such attributes of Druidism. For example, Beltane Day (the 1st of May) is the day of the "white" or magic; there is also the festival of Samhain, or Hallowe'en, which is Samfuin summer end. The weeks following tliese, 6th May and 6th November, are still the dates of the Head Courts" of the Lord Lyon King of Arms-representative of the Celtic Druid historians, later the High Sennachie of the Scottish kings. During the period of the supremacy of the Druidical religion, Scotland was populated by a large number of distinct tribes, each under its own chief, and these chiefs under the district provincial righ. i.e. district kings, though, of course, the independence of each tribe was very great. "Thus every district became a petty independent state . . . a sort of hereditary monarchy." It would appear that each of the tribes had Its own "Druids," respectivelY priest. sennachie, and dempster or judge of the tribe, but the Druids tregarded themselves as an Order and Hierarchy and just as the chiefs formed a nominal group under their Ard-righ, so the Druids appear to have been organized in what one might call a hierarchy or coflege. evidently under the precedency of the chief Druid of the Pictish High King. In time of war, it was the custom of the tribes to arrange themselves under the banner of one supreme warAeader, entitled ceann~caLh. This war-leader, chosen for his initiatory efficiency. was, as Robertson points out in Early Scottish Kings, distinct from the hereditary chiefs and high chief, whose status was that of Representative of the Community, and not necessarily the executive war~leader or commander-in-chief.

The Druidical order consisted of three classes: the Bardi, or Poets, the Vates, or Priests. and the highest branch of the order. the DeoPhaistein, who acted as lawgivers and instructors of the principles of religion. An Archdruid presided over the complete order; and it can well be understood how this hierarchy was able to wield a power which surpassed any authority of king or chief. The Druids enjoined the cultivation of memory and forbade the comminuting of history to writing. Versification was practiced in order that the mind might retain a greater hold of the subject. Even the laws of the country were preserved in rhyme. and in this manner had to be orally mastered; and, similarly, the genealogies of the kings, chiefs, and chieftains, were orally handed down by the high sennachics and tribal sennachies. who thus wielded a tremendous power in matters of succession to office or to property.

It can easily be imagined, therefore, that when Christianity supplanted "Druidism" in Celtic Scotland. a bitter struggle must have taken place between the Christian priesthood and those of the older Druidic religion. Traces of this are preserved in the life of St. Columba, and indeed are found in the Scottish coronation service, where the division of ceremonial duties between the Bishop and the Lyon, indicates aiii engrafting on the older pagan ritual of chiefly "inauguration" the Christian concept of Ordination of the Sovereign. It has been suggested that when Christianity came in, the missionaries would in their zeal have done all in their power to destroy the ancient religion and its practices. This, however, is far from being the case. for, unlike a modern missionary with a military force not so far behind him, the primitive saints were obliged to convert or perish. and in the process of conversion to be exceedingly diplomatic and extraordinarily adaptable. In these circumstances, innumerable survivals of the earlier tribal cults have subsisted throughout Christian Scotland and were cleverly engrafted by the early saints, with the practice and ritual of the ritual of the Christian and Catholic religion; indeed, it was not until after the Reformation, when there arose a sudden resurgence of the earlier rites and primitive beliefs-popularly denoted "witchcraft"--that effective steps were taken by the Reformed Church, and the Gevernment authorities of the seventeenth century, to suppress the remains of the Druidical religion.

Whilst the Druid priests all but disappeared with the advent of the Christian religion, saving a brief resurgence as the local "devils" of the post-Reformation witch-cultus, the bardic and sennachiedal branch survived in two forms: t(sb:i):stiell~eishter~baanl (a) the Royhal heralds; (b) the tribal bards. It would be difficult to say that the second of these is even yet extinguished. They subsisted in many of the greatest clans down to the middle of the eighteenth century. The office of Ri-seannachie, with supreme jurisdiction in matters of genealogy and the duty of the preserving the Royal pedigree.

The Romans referred to Picts as painted people, because they painted their bodies. Our most impressive insight into the lives of the Picts has come from their ancient form of communication or art as it might be labeled on the stone walls of caves and on tombstones found widely scattered in many parts of Pictland. The strange figure-carvings represent certain fixed motifs which appear repeatedly - a decorated crescent with a V-shaped flowered scepter behind it; a snake; a fish; and object like a pair of spectacles; and a number of others, all carved on the stone with an incredible artistic mastery. The Picts? sculptured stones portraying the bull of the Aberdeen Angus strain, the wolf, the Celtic horse, the dear and the eagle. Such stones can be found on the cave walls of Wemyss in Fife as well as the Tay valley, and Morey.

Wemyss CavesBy Selena Fox

The Wemyss Caves are in Fife, Scotland along the rocky coast of the Firth of Forth which flows into the North Sea. Most of the caves are near the village of East Wemyss.

Between 8,000 and 9,000 years ago, the sea began forming these caves out of sandstone cliffs. Archaeologists date human use of these caves to Bronze Age times. Through the centuries, the Wemyss Caves have been used as dwellings, workplaces, and ceremonial sites for a variety of peoples, including the Picts and Scots. . . In April of this year, (1996) I visited these ancestral caves to learn more about them, their history, and their connections with my forebears. I also gathered information at the National Library of Scotland in Edinburgh and from Bankin?s Guide to the Wemyss Caves, which I used as a primary source for this article.

The Wemyss Caves are best known for their rock art carvings. According to Rankin (page 7), "there are more markings in the Wemyss Caves than in all the caves in Britain put together." Much of its petroglyph rock art is Pictish and dates from the fourth century CE. Some, such as the image of the Pictish warrior figure and glyphic symbol, commonly known as "Thor and His Goat." are said to be at least twelve hundred years old. Other carvings, such as c up marks, have been dated to 1,000 - 3,000 BC.

Archaeological research into the Wemyss caves and their art began in 1865 when two gentlemen from Edinburgh, chloroform scientist, Professor James Young Simpson, and his friend, Dr. Dewar, visited the caves as part of their bacation in the area. The following year, additional researchers began exp loring the caves. George Deas, who discovered and made castings of some of the markings, became a leading archaeological authority on the Wemyss Caves. Frank Rankin draws on the research of Deas and others in his guidebook about the Wemyss Caves and their markings.

Most of the Wemyss Caves have individual names derived from history and lore. Each has its own story. The most visited and best preserved of the caves in the present day is Jonathan?s Cave. It is the largest of the caves and also contains the most petroglyphs. It was named for Jonathan, a nailmaker who lived in this cave with his wife and children in the eighteenth century. Occasionally old nails, indcative of this use, are still found on the ground in this place. This cave also has been called "Cat Cave" because of the feline-shaped Pictish "beastie" water spirit image that once was on its walls. Another name, "Factor?s Cave," harkens to the time when the factor, or caretaker, of the Wemyss estate (which included the caves as well as nearby villages and countryside) used the cave as a pigeon house.

All of the rock art in Jonathan?s Cave is on the west wall of the cave, exept an image of an ancient sailing vessel which is toward the back of the cave along a bulge on the east wall. The vessel is the oldest known drawing of a ship in Scotland, and its between one and two thousand years old, and possibly even older. In the past, this cave was probably used as a ceremonial place as well as havitation due to its many symbols with spiritual dimensions. There is an equal armed cross there. There also are several Pictish double discs, which some say symbolize the relationship between the visible and invisible realms of life (Rankin, page 34). In addition, the cave?s animal images (horse, swan, dog, fish, deer, goose) are among the sacred creatures in Celtic mythology, Scottish folklore, and Pictish artwork elsewhere. There also are other markings, such as tridents, a dagger, and cup marks. More research is needed to better understand the petroglyphs in this and other Wemyss Caves.

To the east of Jonathan?s Cave is Sloping Cave, also known as Sliding Cave, which was so named because its entrance has been partially filled up by a landslide and it is necessary to enter by sliding into it. It contains a Pictish comb case petroglyph as well as a double disc.

The nearby Gasworks Cave was named for the gasworks which was once in this area. The cave was discovered in the 1860?s when workers were in the process of sining in a tank for a gasometer. Due to coastal erosion, this cave can now only be reached along the coast at low tide. No markings have been found in this cave, but a mortar with corn was found by Professor Simpson during his visit in the nineteenth century. The corn kernels were so well preserved, that despite their age, they grew when Simpson planted some of them in his garden.

Down the shore towards the village of Coaltown of Wemyss, are two caves, Michael Cave and Glass Cave, which are no longer open. In 1929, Michael Cave was discovered when workers were installing a new boiler at Michael Colliery (coal Mine). A hole under the boiler led into the cave and archaeologist George Deas was called to investigate. He discovered rock art depicting a shamanistic-like hunting scene, plus a cup and ring. Although he was able to photofraph these images, he did not get the time he requested for in-depth study, and unfortunately, workers filled in the cave with concrete.

Glass Cave was a large cave on the west side of Michael Colliery. In 1610, Sir George Hay, established one of the first glass works in Scotland here. Glass making continued into the next century, but then stopped. It once was used as a shelter for cattle and in more recent times, the last hole of the old Wemyss golf couse lay at one of its entrances. As a result of colliery shafts bing sunk to the east of the cave in 1898, the cave collapsed a few years later.

The Doo Cave, located along the East Wemyss shore, also has suffered destruction. It was actually tow caves until the first part of the twentieth century. The West Doo Cave, which contained a great number of markings, collapsed during the first World War when a gun was fired from a battery atop the cave. The East Doo Cave is still accessible, but suffered some sea damage during a severe storm in 1945. The Doo Cave derives its name from doocot, or pigeon house. During the Middle Ages, it was used for the raising of pigeons which supplemented the winter diet of the Wemyss family and household. Pigeon boxes carved out of a stone wall are still to be found in this cave. ..

My husband, Dr. Dennis Carpenter, and I visited Wemyss Caves in April, 1996 on Easter Sunday, with Pictish artist and writer Marianna Lines as our guide. We spent some time in quiet reflection at Jonathan?s Cave as well as studi ed and recorded some of the rock art there and in Court Cave. Marianna produces photofraphs as well as natural dye impressions of Pictish rock art from a variety of ancient sites, including the Wemyss Caves. She also travels throughout the UK and gives presentations on Pictish and Celtic heritage. For more information about her work write her: M. Lines, Lomond View, Collessie, KY15 7RQ, by Cupar, Fife, Scotland.

Pich drawings also show weapons, armor and costume, tools such as the hammer and pincers, individual figures of hunters and soldiers and mythological creatures like the dog-headed and spiral-tailed dragon, and Christian crosses with elaborate designs. These Pictish stones represent a remarkable achievement, unequaled among the other people of Scotland of the time and the symbols, which decorate them, convey messages that intrigue and baffle scholars. Because no other form of written Pictish literature has been passed down, no reconstruction of their language has been attempted.

However this was only a part of the complex lifestyles of our Celtic ancestors. They lived a life style that included an oral tradition of learning, a well-developed legal system, close-knit family and social obligations and many of the traditions and customs that we observe today. The Celts of Scotland also had a language that, with regional variants, allowed them to converse with other Celts in England, Wales, Cornwall, Ireland and northern France. However to a strong degree their reputation is the result of their opposition to the Romans whose campaigns against them in Scotland were chronicled by Cornelius Tacitus. Living in tribes the Celts had an economy based on crops and animal husbandry, but it was due to their fighting qualities that they were noted in Roman and Greek history.

Ptolemy gave us the information needed to identify some of the tribal names that were to make up the "Pictish kingdom", they included the: Caledones, Caereni, Lugi, Smertae and Decantae, Vacomagi, Venicones, the Epidii on the west coast and the Damnonii, Novantae and Selgovac further south in Scotland.

According to Diodorus of Sicily c. 40 BC, a Celtic force crossed the Alps from Southern Gaul, passed through northern Italy and, sweeping all defense before it, marched through what was Yugoslavia and Albania into Greece. Still irresistible by late autumn of 279 BC, it had scaled Mount Parnassus and was menacing the holiest place in the ancient world, the oracular shrine of Apollo at Delphi. "Standing legs astride, hands on hips, in the echoing, subterranean vault, he presented, as Diodorus tells us, not only a sacrilegious, but a bizarre and terrifying sight. Immensely tall in comparison with the Greeks and made more so by his horned helmet, his face was adorned with a flaring moustache and his costume consisted of breeches, a brightly coloured shirt and a tartan plaid cloak fastened with a heavy brooch. No less bizarre and terrifying were his troops, a force historians have estimated at probably about 30,000 strong. In later conflicts Irish and Scottish troops struck such dread into their enemies that the Germans of the First World War dubbed the kilted Highlanders ?the ladies from Hell?." Celtic Lore by Ward Rutherford p.9 Rutherford went on to further describe the ancient Celts by describing their harsh war shouts and blood chilling note of the carnyx, long battle-trumpet and vicious, double edged claymores and shields as tall as they were. The Celtic spear-throwers where said to have gone into battle wearing only the torc, the thick, heavy, Celtic neck-ring.

Diodorus is also quoted in the following passage from The Celts, edited by Dr. Joseph Raftery, on The Thomas Davis Lecture Series, p 40:

For their journeys and in battle they use two-horse chariots, the chariots carrying both charioteer and chieftain. When they meet with cavalry in the battle they cast their javelins at the enemy and then, descending from the chariot join battle with their swords. Some of them so far despise death that they descend to do battle, unclothed except for a girdle. They bring into battle, as their attendants, freemen chosen from among the poorer classes, whom they use as charioteers and shield-bearers in battle. When the armies are drawn up in battle-array they are wont to advance before the battle-line and to challenge the bravest of their opponents to single combat, at the same time brandishing before them their arms so as to terrify their foe. And when some one accepts their challenge to battle, they loudly recite the deeds of valour of their ancestors and proclaim their own valorous quality, at the same time abusing and making little of their ipponent and generally attempting to rob him beforehand of his fighting spirit. They cut off the heads of enemies slain in battle and attach them to the necks of their horses. The blood-stained spoils they hand over to their attendants and carry off as booty, while striking up a paean and singing a song of victory, and they nail up these first fruits upon their houses just as do those who lay low wild animals in certain kinds of hunting. They embalm in cedar-oils the heads of the most distinguished enemies and preserve them carefully in a chest, and display them with pride to strangers, saying that , for this head, one of their ancestors, or his father, or the man himself, refused the offer of a large sum of money. They say that some of them boast that they refused the weight of the head in gold; thus displaying what is only a barbarous kind of magnanimity; for it is not a sign of nobility to refrain from selling the proofs of one?s valour, it is rather true that it is bestial to continue one?s hostility against a slain fellow-man.

After the Celts capture of Rome in 390 BC, they moved westward from France to England prior to moving into Scotland and then Ireland. Raid and invasion in Scotland lead to settlement and colonization of individual nations and kingdoms, which eventually unified into a single kingdom, Scotland.

Again from a passage quoted verbatim by Athenaeus in The Celts, p. 39 we get a glimpse into the life of our Celtic ancestors:

The Celts sit on dried grass and have their meals served up on wooden tables raised slightly above the earth. Their food consists of a small number of loaves of bread together with a large amount of meat, either boiled or roasted on charcoal or on spits. They partake of this in a cleanly but leonine fashion, raising up whole limbs in both hands and biting off the meat, shile any part which is hard to tear off they cut through with a small dagger which hangs attached to their sword-sheath in its own scabbard. Those who live beside the rivers or near the Mediterranean or Atlantic eat fish in addition, baked fish, that is, with the addition of salt, vinegar and cummin. They also use cummin in their drinks. They do not use olive oil because of its scarcity, and because of its unfamiliarity it appears unpleasant to them. When a large number dine togeether they sit around in a circle with the most influential man in the centre, like the leader of the chorus, whether he surpass the others in warlike skill, or nobility of family, or wealth. Beside him sits the host and next on either side the others in order of distinction. Their shieldsmen stand behind them, while their spearsmen are seated in a circle on the opposite side and feast in common like their lords. The servers bear around the drink in terracotta or silver jars like spouted cups. The trenchers on which they serve the food are also of these materials, while with others they are made og bronze, or woven or wooden baskets. The drink of the wealthy classes is wine imported from Italy or from the territory of Marseilles. This is unadulterated, but sometimes a little water is added. The lower classes drink wheaten beer prepared with honey, but most people drink it plain. It is called corma. They use a common cup, drinking a little at a time, not more than a mouthful, but thet do it rather frequently. The slave serves the cup towards the right, not towards the left.

The great Northumbrian scholar and historian, Bebe in his book The Ecclesiastical History of the English People, referred to four distinct people of Scotland in 731. The four people were called,
Picts,
Scots,
Angles,
Britons. Written at Bebe?s monastery of Wearmouth-Jarrow, The Ecclesiastical History, is considered the first reliable source for the post-migration era.

Our family lines are most directly connected with the Scots and Picts. A great deal of information on the earliest origins of both the Scots and the Picts has been gathered during my genealogy research. Although very separate people the Scots and Picts have an intertwined history which individually and combined lead us to the origins of our known ancestral line.

The stories had been passed down through the ages that the Picts first landed in Ireland and took Irish wives with them to the land they settled in, in Scotland. Bebe wrote:

The Picts, of whom it is said that they came over from Scythia (possibly meaning Scandinavia) in a few long boats, having been driven by storms around the coast of Britain, eventually found a safe haven in northern Ireland. On landing, they asked permission to settle, but were politely told that there was no land to spare. The Irish did, however, suggest that they might find suitable land across the sea to the east, and even offered help in case they met with any resistance. So the Picts crossed into Britain and began to settle in the north of the island, since the Britons were in possession of the south. Having no women with them, these Picts asked wives of the Irish, who consented on condition that, when any dispute arose, they should choose a king from the female royal line rather than the male. This custom continues among the Picts to this day. p46

One of the first written record of the Picts was in 297 AD. While praising the Emperor Constantius Augustus, the orator Eumenius, referred to the Britons as "already being accustom to the Picti and Hiberni as enemies". The name Britons was given to the tribal people to be found in the territories under Roman occupation as opposed to the tribes to be found to the north of Hadrian?s Wall.

The earliest surviving version of the Pictish Chronicle is a copy of the original document written in Latin. The Latin copy was made during the reign of Kenneth son of Malcolm (971-95). A copy written 100 years later during t h e reign of Malcolm son of Duncan, also known as Malcolm Canmore (1057-93). This latter copy gave an introduction in Gaelic and adds some information about the seven sons dividing the land into seven parts. These Pictish records, the Pictish Chronicle, as edited by W.F. Skene in Chronicles of the Picts, Chronicles of the Scots, and other Early Memorials of Scottish History, pp.4-10, 24-30 and 396-400:

Cruithne son of Cinge, the father of the Picts inhabiting this island, regned for 100 years. He had seven sons, whose nemes were Fib, Fidach, Fotlaig, Fortrenn, Cait, Ce, and Circinn. And this was the name of each man of them and their territory.

Fib was Fife, the area of our Wemyse ancestry. A pedigree extending back to Noah was also included in the Pictish Chronicle. "Cruithne son of Cinge, son of Luctai, son of Partalan, son of Agnoin, son of Buain, son of Mais, son of Fathecht, son of Jafeth, son of Noe"

By the fourth century the Picts had grow stronger in the north and the Roman authority in the south grew weaker. During the fourth and fifth centuries, the Picts had taken to the sea.

The sixth century was a momentous one in the annals of Pictavia or Caledonia, for during this period the Irish or Dalriadic Scots successfully invaded western Pictavia and, under King Fergus, established the kingdom of Daldada there in A.D. 503. Massive migration of the Scot tribe from Ulster, County Antrim in Irland to Argyll in Scotland began. The ancient history of the Scots leads us again back to the history recorded by Bebe. He referred to the Scottish chieftain, Reude as Echdach Riada, thirteen generations earlier than Fergus mac Erc.

Again on the Scots side of our Celtic ancestors, claimed that the family of Echdach Riada was traced back to Jafeth, the son of Noah. As documented in the genealogy of William the Lion who also appears in the genealogy of Reuda, Goildil-glais or Gaiidelus was the son of Neuil or Neolus who was represented as being the twenty-second generation from Jafeth son of Noah. Gaidelus was described as a nobleman of Scythia who married Scotta, the daughter of Pharoah, King of Egypt. Skene, 1867 p195.

In The Age of the Picts p.51 W.A. Cummins gives us a brief history that links Gaidelus to the migration of the Scots from Ireland to Scotland.

Gaidelus and his people travelled in many countries and eventually settled in Spain, whence their descendants migrated to Ireland. According to Nennius who had consulted the best scholars among the Scot (Irish), they arrived in Dal Raida 1002 years after the Egyptians had been drown in the Red Sea. With minor variations ( and generally without the precise dating given by Nennius), this was the story which would have been told in the Middle Ages, if anyone had wanted to know who the Scots were.

At this time the conversion of the Northern Picts to Christianity by St. Columba, who landed on the shores of the small island of Hy, or lona, from Ireland, in A.D. 563 was also underway.

Now the Scots emerge on the lands of our Pictish ancestors. The Dalnadic Scots are believed to have come from Antrim, from Dal-Riada, so named from its chief, Carbre-Riada. The Dalnadic colonists were under the leadership of Fergus, mor mac Erc, a descendant of Carbre-Riada. Much information of this time can be found in the Senchus Fer n'Alban a document referred to as the History of the Men of Scotland. It is a 7th Century document that details the genealogy of the ruling families of Dal Riata.

With Fergus came his son Domangart and his two brothers, Loarn and Angus. The southern boundary of the Dalnadic territory in Scotland was the Firth of Clyde, while on the east the boundary between the Dalnads and the Picts was a chain of mountains, then known as Drumalban. After the Dalnadic Scots had firmly settled in Scotland, their possessions appear have been divided among four tribes. These were (I) the Cinci Lorn, descended from Loarn, one of the three brothers already mentioned; (2 and 3) the Cinci Ga~ran and the Cinci Comga1~ descended respectively, from Comgail and Gabran, two sons of Domangart, son of Fergus; while (4) the Ginel Angus derived their descent from the third brother, Angus. Domangart, like his father did not live long after coming to Scotland. He died in 506 BC. The turbulent years of Furgus and Domangart suggest that the lineage of Fergus was having to fight hard to gain position in this new land. Gabran later had a son, Aedan and in 558 fought a battle with the Picts led by Brude Mac Maelchon. This was the year that Gabran died. It is not stated that G a b ran d ied in the battle, but it was a strong victory for the Picts. There were no more battles recorded between the Picts and Dal Tiata for fifteen years to come.

From a manuscript known as the Pictish List of Kings, we know that Brude son of Maelchon became king of the Picts in 550. It seems that sometime after his death some descendants of Dumnagual Hen, or Brits, became kings of the Picts. Brude's father had also been a Briton.

The two original Pictish kingdoms of the northern and southern Picts were united in a single, extensive kingdom by the late sixth or early seventh century. It covered Scotland north of the Forth-Clyde line, excluding Argyll, but including the Orkneys, where some of the most impressive stones have been found. In the seventh century the main threat to the territory of the Picts came from the Angles of Northumbria who after defeating the Scots in 603 moved northwards and over the Forth. The angles, a people related to the Saxons, overran most of Caledonia. The Picts later crushed the Angle's in 685 at Nechtansmere under Brude, son of the Pictish king, Bile.

The Picts were found in the area of Scotland north of the Fourth and east of the Grampains. In the period between the late Roman times and the middle of the ninth century, they maintained their independence against the Britons of the south, the Scots of Dal Riada, and the English of Northumbria, in a continual series of battles. The Picts have been recorded annihilating the army of the king of Northumbria at Nechtansmere in Angus - Linn Garan, ?the Pool of the Crane?, as they probably called it themselves in 635. The overwhelming Pictish victory permanently weakened Northumbrian power in Caledonia. Also under their great king Unuist or Angus MacFergus (Oengus mac Fergus) , 8th century King of the Picts (729-61), they sacked the capital of Dal Riada at Dunadd in Argyll in 736. It was this famous king who was recognized as their overlord by the Scots of Dalriada. His reign saw the Pictish kingdom at its peak of authority during a time of civil war among the Picts. The civil war proper began in 728 which was also the year that Oengus challenged Elpin at the battle of Monidcroib. Elphin,s son and many of those loyal to him were killed and the victorious Oengus became king. The final battle of the civil war was fought at Dromadarggblathmig, where Drust, Oengus? one remaining rival was killed. The Picts then had a strong king who had been tested on the field of battle. Anyone who challenged his authority was put to death by drowning. Oengus then lead his armies westward into the territory of the Dalraian Scots.

The Scots of Dalriada had also suffered a period of civil war. Oengus made his first attack against the Scots in 734, the year after the death of Echdach. There was little challenge by the much smaller leaderless kingdom of Dalriada and the Pictish nation, united under its victorious king.

The next record of Oengus was his battle against the Britons in 750. In this battle Talorgan son of Fergus, the brother of Oengus, fell, and there was great slaughter of the Picts. pp 76, 358 Skene, 1867. Oengus continued to rule the Picts and defeated the Britons of Strathclyde in 756. He died in 761 and was succeeded by his brother Brude, who died only 2 years later.

History Of The Scottish Nation

By Rev. J. A. Wylie LL.D., LONDON: HAMILTON, ADAMS, & CO. ANDREW ELLIOT, EDINBURGH 1886

Three volumes of very interesting reading. Dr. Wylie takes us back to the second beginning of humanity?to the very days of Noah. Evolution is completely disproved. Mankind come from the mountains of Ararat in present day Turkey. The Scots have not changed in 2000 years. Papal Rome has not changed one iota from Pagan Rome. She is still as bloodthirsty and eager to conquer the kingdoms of this world as she was when she faced off against the Caledonians. Today she is using the Pentagon to conquer the Greek Church, just as she used the Vikings and Anglo-Normans to destroy the Gaelic Church.

After the fall of Rome, the British Isles became the most important area in the world. It was there that the battle between good and evil was fought for centuries. Reading this History is like reading the Old Testament with the constant battles and strife.

For some of the earliest information on the Picts, this work is wonderful. You can find all three volumes on line using the following link.

Many Additional Links to Pict Sites

The Pictish nation, which was strongly clannish, even in prehistoric times, adopted a Christianity intertwined with clan totemism. It resolutely favored the paneled cross, is that which became the basis of the Scottish nation, though from 843 to 1034 it was ruled by kings who were Dalriad Scots in the male line. Clans, Septs and Regiments of the Scottish Highlands, p 5.

King Angus of Pictland, styled MacFergus (" King Hungus" of legend), carried the religious development of Scotland, and consequently its inter-related constitutional and tribal development, a great step farther when he introduced the cult of St. Andrew in 757. In 756 he had, with Edbert, King of Northumbria made a successful campaign against the kingdom of Strathclyde but on returning eastward, Symeon of Durham records that, between" Ovania " and" New-burgh" a disaster overwhelmed Edbert's army. Scottish tradition fills in the picture: The Northumbrian army commanded by " Atholstan" seems to have swung north into East Lothian threatening the Pictish kingdom. A vision of St. Andrew's Cross in the sky, with the Pictish bishops promise of victory, encouraged the Picts to attack. Having annihilated Edbert's army at Athelstaneford, Angus returned to Fife, where at the headland of Kilrymount he was duly met by St. Regulus, who had just landed with the alleged sacred relics, and thereupon was founded what in due time became the Archepiscopal See and Burgh of St. Andrews. King Angus I died in 759.