The counties of Wigtown and Kirkcudbright were occupied in the second century by the Novantæ, having two towns called Rerigonium and Leucopibia. The ancient Celtic name of the district was in Irish Gallgaidhel (i.e. foreign Gael), and in Welsh Galwydel, and hence in Latin Gallovidia, Galloweithia, now Galloway. Its inhabitants were called by Bede "Niduari Picti," and they were known as the Galloway Picts as late as the twelfth century. The most puzzling statement about this district is that of Chalmers (Caledonia, i. p. 358), who states that Galloway was colonised in the eighth century by the Cruithne from Ireland. Cruithne is the Irish equivalent to Picti, and a people known by this name occupied the larger portion of Ulster. According to Skene, however, Chalmers's statement is not supported by any evidence.
The Scots forming the kingdom of Dalriada occupied that portion of the west of Scotland corresponding to Argyllshire, and had the fortress of Dunadd as their chief stronghold.
The rest of Scotland, with the exception of a portion of the low country near the Roman wall, which became a debatable territory, and often the theatre of wars amongst the four surrounding nations, constituted the so-called Pictish kingdom.
Christianity was introduced into Scotland from two different sources. The Southern Picts were converted to the Faith by St. Ninian, who derived his teaching direct from Rome, and founded a church at Candida Casa (Whithorn) as early as A.D. 397; while St. Columba, the Apostle of the Northern Picts, came from Ireland in A.D. 563, and developed the Columban branch of the Church, having its headquarters at Iona. The more important of the subsequent events of these four kingdoms are here briefly arranged in chronological order:—
A.D. 573. Battle of Ardderyd.
A.D. 575. Aidan becomes king of the Scots.
A.D. 603. Angles of Bernicia defeat a combined army of Britons and Scots under the command of Aidan at Degsastane, now Dawstone, in Liddesdale.
A.D. 606. Death of Aidan, king of Dalriada; Aedilfrid conquers Deira and expels Aeduin.
A.D. 617. Aeduin regains the kingdom of Northumbria, and eleven years afterwards he and his people are converted to Christianity by Paulinus.
A.D. 642-670. Angles, under King Oswy, subdue and make tributary to him the Britons of Strathclyde, as well as the greater portion of the Picts and Scots.
A.D. 672. Unsuccessful attempt of the Picts to throw off the yoke of the Angles.
A.D. 684. Ecgfrid, king of Northumbria, sends an army to Ireland, and lays waste part of that country. In the following year he invades the kingdom of the Picts, but is defeated and slain at Dunnichen. The Picts, Scots, and Britons of Strathclyde, etc., now regain their freedom, but the Angles still retain possession of Galloway.
A.D. 740. Alpin, king of the Scots of Dalriada, invades Galloway, but is slain near Kirkcudbright.
A.D. 744. Battle between Angus, king of the Picts, and the Britons of Strathclyde. Soon afterwards the former is joined by Eadberct of Northumbria, and a combined attack on the kingdom of Strathclyde is made, with the result that the latter adds the whole of Ayrshire to his Galloway possessions. (Eadbertus campum Cyil cum aliis regionibus suo regno addidit.—Bede, Chron.)
A.D. 795. First appearance of Norwegian and Danish pirates in the western seas.
A.D. 802. Iona burned by Norsemen.
A.D. 806. Iona again plundered by Norsemen, and sixty-eight men of the monastery slain.
A.D. 844. Kenneth mac Alpin, king of the Scots, becomes also king of the Picts.
A.D. 853. Arrival of Olaf the White in Ireland. He seizes Dublin, and establishes himself there as king, after which he makes an expedition into Scotland, besieges, and takes Alclyde after a siege of four months.
A.D. 946. Kingdom of Cumbria ceded to Malcolm, king of the Scots. (Strat Clut vastata est a Saxonibus.—Hist. Brit.)
Section III.
Structure of the Wooden Islands.
In my Introductory Chapter I have remarked that none of the Irish writers appear to have paid much attention to the mechanical principles on which the wooden islands were constructed. A similar remark is equally applicable to the writers on Scottish crannogs. Dr. Stuart had got hold of the general idea that the mortised transverses were used for the purpose of steadying the uprights, and that the outer structures were adapted to resist the action of the surrounding water. The following are his words: "Of the first class, or the crannog proper, the ordinary construction was by logs of wood in the bed of the lake supporting a structure of earth or stones, or of a mixture of both, the mass being surrounded by piles of young oak-trees in the bed of the lake, the inner row of which kept the island in shape, and the external rows acted as defences and breakwaters."[43] But these views convey only a partial notion of a more comprehensive system, the meaning of which I was only able to perceive after my experience at Buston. Notwithstanding that I made the structural arrangements of the Lochlee crannog a particular point of study, I failed to adduce a satisfactory theory for the details recorded; and, beyond showing that the two inner circles of uprights, with their radial and circumferential transverses which immediately surrounded the log pavement, formed a kind of breastwork or wall some 3 feet high, I made no advance on Dr. Stuart's theory. I could offer no explanation of the other large mortised beams found external to this circle, nor of the network of oak beams—some with mortised holes, and others with tenons to fit into continuous beams—which became manifest on making the deep shaft, and appeared to permeate the whole structure of the island. The advantage of carefully recording every fact, however trivial or obscure, has never been better illustrated than in this very article (that on the Lochlee crannog), as, with the more recent light thrown upon the subject, there can be no doubt that these structures, as well as the mortised beams (one of which contained three holes) lying on the western margin of the crannog, were some of the radial beams of an encircling girdle, still in situ, which surrounded and knit together the island in a precisely similar manner to that at Buston, as described at page 197. At Buston also, the inner circle, as evidenced by its mural remains, formed part of the enclosure surrounding the log pavement, and thus corresponded with, and served the same purpose as, the breastwork at Lochlee. Again, on the south side of both crannogs, the circles were more numerous, and occupied a larger area than on the north side, but with this difference,—that at Lochlee the midden covered the greater portion of this space, which at Buston was converted into an open and partially paved promenade.