Fickleness of Mankind

April 14, 2019  Campbeltown Market Cross (front face)

The Campbeltown Market Cross provides insight into the fickleness of humankind...by retrospection. History judges all, as it were.

Campbeltown's Market Cross was something of a wanderer, literally.  In general, today most (but not all) accept that it was carved on Iona, and was probably created by the commission of Andrew MacEachern, pastor at Kilchoman parish church on the Isle of Islay, sometime around 1370 A.D.  Beyond this, the "stories" diverge.

A long enduring dispute exists over whether Campbeltown's Market Cross was originally erected at Kilkivan on Kintyre (as the Kintyriana claim) or was initially sited at Kilchoman on Islay (as the Illeach say) and was then taken (purloined) from Islay to Kintyre.  An intermediate stop, apparently, was the parish church at Kilkivan.  Regardless, the Market Cross eventually made its way to Main Street nearby Campeltown's Town Hall, at some point after 1608 A.D. when Campbeltown became a royal burgh.

One of the privileges of a royal burgh is that it can hold trade markets by its own authority.  Usually, a market cross served as the axis around which trade fairs assembled.  So, the royal burgh of Campbeltown required a Market Cross (or Mercat Cross) by the first decade of the 1600s.  Though perhaps a curious custom to us today, within the "boundaries" of a market cross not only were markets formed, but official public business was transacted as well.  This is evidenced in a royal charter by William III (William of Orange) issued April 19, 1700.

April 15, 2019  The Campbeltown Fair by Archibald MacKinnon (1886) 

The 1700 charter granted the Provost of Campbeltown "full liberty, licence and power...to have and erect a New Market Cross, weighing machine, weigh-house and a tollbooth."  At this Market Cross, it was "lawful for our lieges within the bounds of Kintyre, the Islands of Gigha and Cara to pound and appraise goods."

More onerous powers assigned to the Market Cross were also enumerated.  The Market Cross was where rebels were denounced.  And it was authorized:  "to do all other acts of proclamation and legal executions there at in like manner and as freely in all respects as if the same were the market cross of the principal burgh of the said Sheriffdom."

The royal charter of 1700 was retroactive, however, perhaps issued to recognize the de facto existence of Campbeltown's Market Cross.  Indeed, twenty years earlier, the Campbeltown Cross is known to have been standing.  A.I.B. Stewart ("Campbeltown Cross") noted that it was mentioned in criminal proceedings in 1680. A certain Finvall McCannill was "to be taken to the Mercat Cross of Campbeltwon and there to be whipt and scourgit by the hands of the common executioner."

Exactly when the Market Cross was removed from its ecclesiastical moorings (whether at Kilchoman on Islay of Kilkivan on Kintyre) and made its journey to Campbeltown in the 1600s may not be known.  But what is known is that it certainly did not escape unscathed in its wanderings.  More ardent critics of the era use the terms--desecrated or mutilated.

The Market Cross was indeed greatly "modified".  Figuratively speaking, its head was shamefully shaved by Reformation zealotry aimed at what they defined as graven images.  The Market Cross is emblematic, it bears witness of the fickleness of mankind, the mob.

A.I.B Stewart records that in 1640, at the beginning of the English Civil War (Oliver Cromwell and the Roundheads), an act of Parliament declared that "all idolatrous images, crucifixes, pictures of Christ and all other idolatrous pictures were to be demolished and removed forth from all churches, colleges, chapels and other public places."

April 15, 2019  Hogmanay at the Cross, Campbeltown by Archibald MacKinnon (1899) 

On July 8, 1642, the Synod of Argyll ordered every minister (installed to replace Catholic priests) was to report "all idolatrous monuments within their parishes to which the vulgar superstitiously resorts to worship, to the end the same may be demolished." 

Thus, some submit that the Market Cross made its journey to Campbeltown at this time in the early 1640s.   In any case, its carved image of our crucified Savior, which formerly occupied the central position on the disc head, was removed.  Two other figures (clerics--likely the MacEachern who commissioned the Cross) were chiseled away.  Interestingly though, the figure of Mary was left untouched by Reformation iconoclasts, as were images of St. John, the Archangel Michael slaying a dragon, a mermaid and various animals.

Thus, "purged of its Catholic excrescences" as one historian put it, it was erected (or possibly re-erected) as the town's Market Cross.  That it survived the destructiveness of the Protestant Reformation and mobs of iconoclasts at all is a wonder.  Local Reformationists were not so keen to destroy the magnificent artifact...as had been done so many times to countless others.

This was also not the end of its wandering.  In 1939, as the Battle of Britain raged in the skies over the United Kingdom, Campbeltown's Market Cross was taken down from its plinth at the Town Hall for safe keeping from German bombing raids.  After the Second World War, the Market Cross was relocated down Main Street from its former site to its current location at the Old Quay Head in the middle of the traffic roundabout...at Campbeltown's de facto gateway.

April 14, 2019  The Old Quay at Campbeltown

Prominently displayed in the Campbeltown Museum are two paintings by locally acclaimed artist, Archibald MacKinnon.  The Campbeltown Fair and Hogmanay at the Cross (shown above) feature the central place the Market Cross has had in Campbeltown's culture for hundreds of years.  Even today, most weddings and funerals customarily circumnavigate the Cross once before proceeding.

April 18, 2019  Davaar Island at the head of Campbeltown Loch

In 1887, MacKinnon had a dream or a vision that he was to paint the crucifixion of Christ in a sea cave on Davaar Island off Campbeltown.  Davarr is a tidal island off Campbeltown that is connected to the mainland at low tide via a causeway called The Doirlinn.

April 18, 2019  Davaar from the Doirlinn at low tide

We made the trek out to Davaar on Good Friday, an "appropriate" pilgrimage as one gentleman we met walking out to the sea caves styled it.  A few words of caution are necessary.  First, the ground is loose rounded cobble and boulder strewn.  It is challenging because you must mind your feet or risk turning your ankles severely.  A hiking staff would be helpful.  (The gentleman we met was using two staffs.)

April 18, 2019  Boulder field below the sea cliffs on Davaar Island

Second, care regarding tide tables is absolutely required when visiting Davaar.  For example, we were told by our Campbeltown hosts (Earadale B&B) that only a few days before we made our trek out to MacKinnon's sea cave painting a couple tourists had to be rescued off the Doirlinn beacon by the Royal Navy Life Boat Station at Campbeltown.

April 18, 2019  The Doirlinn Beacon; Campbeltown Loch in background

April 18, 2019  The Doirlinn Beacon

Though acclaimed today, MacKinnon was actually driven out of Campbeltown--in yet another testament of the fickleness of mankind's mob.  MacKinnon's painting was eventually discovered by fishermen.  Not knowing the source of the painting, locals declared it a miracle, a divine revelation.

April 18, 2019  Tidal flats on The Doirlinn

Once the source of the painting was known, MacKinnon suffered the indignation of public denouncements in the press...accused as an egotistical fame seeker, he was run off.  MacKinnon returned to Campbeltown to retouch his painting in 1902 and again in 1934.  

By then, the Campbeltown public opinion had markedly changed regarding MacKinnon.  He would be celebrated as a local artist, likely because many people came to Campbeltown to see the masterpiece.  Money (from enhancing the business of tourism)  certainly has a way of changing opinions.

Over the past century, many thousands have made a pilgrimage out to the Davaar sea cave.  When we visited, votive offerings and small crucifixes below the painting were evident. 

April 18, 2019  Votive offerings left at the Davaar sea cave painting  

Given more than a century since MacKinnon painted his sea cave work, some damage to the painting has been incurred due to water and the cave's humidity.  Restoration work has been done to the painting since MacKinnon last visited it in 1934.  A metal strip was installed above it help keep water from above running directly down the painting.  But all in all, given where it is--at sea level--the painting has survived well.

April 18, 2019  View from inside the Davaar sea cave

A note on the location, besides being on a boulder and shingled beach, the cave itself (despite claims on various websites) is not sign posted.  It is in what is claimed to be the seventh and final cave.  And so, we visited the various caves until we found what is today known as "The Crucifixion Cave".  But such is the stuff of pilgrimages...a search for quiet constancy beyond the howls of fickle mankind.

That is, as it has always been, a difficult path.      

April 18, 2019  The Crucifixion Cave, Davaar Island; by Archibald MacKinnon (1887)  

Seize quickly!

In 2019, we made our third annual Easter sojourn to west Scotland, again taking up our pilgrimage under the Celtic Cross.  Our journey took us to Campbeltown on the Kintyre Peninsula...to its Market Cross.

April 14, 2019  Campbeltown Market Cross (back face)

Standing 11 feet in height, Campbeltown's Market Cross (a disc head cross carved in the style of the "Iona School") is the largest of its type in Scotland.  Its front face was carved in about 1380 A.D.; commissioned by pastor Andrew MacEachern of Kilchoman Parish, Islay to memorialize his father Sir Ivor MacEachern.  Its back is a maze of Celtic interlaced carved designs.

The Kilchoman Cross on Islay (at just over 8 feet in height) is so similar to the Campbeltown Market Cross (See:  January 19, 2019 Whitley's World blog post "Intricacies of a Gaelic Cross") many believe they were both created by the same craftsman.  In fact, the Illeach (proud natives of Islay) claim the Campbeltown Cross originally stood at Kilchoman and was removed (or purloined) from Islay and re-erected on Kintyre some time after 1608, when Campbeltown became a royal burgh.

A historian described the Campbeltown Market Cross, as "a 14th-century ecclesiastical memorial subsequently appropriated to municipal use."  The Market Cross was certainly standing at Campbletown by 1680 A.D.  For their part, Kintyre natives claim the Market Cross once stood at the parish church Kilkivan (or Kilkavan), near Machrihanish west of Campbeltown.

Kilvivan chapel near Trodigal Cottages on B843

Kilkivan is considered to have been among the last of Kintyre's ancient churches to practice public religious rites before the iconoclasts of the Reformation wrecked so much havoc upon the institution of the Celtic Church.  It is fortunate indeed that the Campbeltown Market Cross survived.

Ancient Kilkivan is seldom on travel itineraries.  Most visitors to this part of South Kintyre are bound for Machrihanish Dunes, its famous golf course and resort.

The ruin of Kilvivan chapel and burial ground, just south of the B843 Machrihanish Road which runs westward from Campbeltown, is worth the visit.  It is not for difficulty to reach it that Kilkivan is off the typical tourist grid.  Rather, it is for the lack of knowledge of its existence, that or a general lack of interest in such sites altogether.

The ruin of Kilkivan Church can be spotted from the road, below the hill line south of B843 near Trodigal Cottages...if one is looking for them.  A road sign marks it simply: "Cemetery".

Sign marking Kilkivan church ruin and burial ground at Trodigal Cottages

For our part, we visited Kilkivan on our return to Campbeltown, having spent most of the morning  hours touring better known heritage sites on the Mull of Kintyre at Southend--specifically Dunaverty Rock and St. Columba's Footprint.  We had lonesome Kilkivan to ourselves on a very windy, misty and somewhat cold Monday morning.  "Windy, misty and cold" cannot be overstated.

April 15, 2019  A windy day at Southend, Kintyre

After picking up our rental VW from Kintyre Hire in Campbeltown, we headed to Southend by 9:00 a.m.  Nominally, weather conditions in Campbeltown (at 40˚F) were not terribly different from what Idaho experiences at this same time of year...nominally that is.

April 15, 2019  Our stout VW rental at Southend's Dunaverty Golf Club 

Weather at Campbeltown (protected on the lee of the Kintyre Peninsula) is not as "vigorous" as what is encountered at Southend or at Macrahanish directly on the sea.  Kintrye, called "Scotland's Mainland Island," is 40 miles in length.  At no point is it more than 11 miles in width, which means at no place is Kintyre far removed from the sea.  And the sea is the indisputable driver of weather in Argyll and the Hebrides. 

April 15, 2019  Rocks below Dunaverty; where 300 MacDonalds were murdered in 1647 

Skies were overcast as we began our excursion in Campbeltown, with a fine drizzle driven by strong breezes (Beaufort scale)...in gusts topping 40 mph.  But at Southend, directly on the North Channel coast and at Macrahanish, sustained winds easily neared gale force based upon our difficulty in keeping our feet firmly planted in the onshore winds, particularly on top of Dunaverty Rock.  And for the record, no.  Campbeltown's high quality scotch elixir played no part at so early a morning hour (borrowing a surety upon the subject from Acts 2:15).

April 15, 2019  The Mull of Kintyre, at Southend

With Kilkivan little more than a mile from the Jura Sound on the western windward side of lower Kintyre (the Sound is visible from the chapel ruin), winds and mist were forceful on Kilkivan's high ground.  Little interrupted the ocean winds which, mist laden, stung the skin.  One thing was certain, having experimented with the effort.  It was not possible to unzip the parka and pull out an Ordnance Survey map, not if we wanted to keep it.

April 15, 2019  Kilkivan Church ruins and cemetery; Jura sound in background

So this weather affected our visit at Kilkivan.  It hustled us.  We were reluctant to dawdle on hilltops or increase our exposure.  Had the weather been more clement, we would have explored Kilkivan's surroundings more extensively.  But being only our second day in Scotland on our 2019 sojourn, we are unwilling to tempt hypothermia (as we certainly did on Hadrian's Wall last year in 2018 on our last touring day in the U.K.)   

Like so many early Christian sites in Argyll, Kilkivan was founded near a prehistoric site.  Interestingly, it may be that prehistoric practices found their way into Kilkivan's liturgical traditions. 

May 12, 1930 Proceedings, Kintyre Hist. Soc.

At Kilvivan are three unusual prehistoric "cairns" (assuming these are in fact cairns--which remains unknown).  A knoll at Kilkivan named Cnocan a' Chluig (Gaelic: "Hill of the Bell") has a pair of ring bank enclosures (or saucer cairns) that are currently attributed to the Bronze Age.

A slightly higher hillock also has a concentric ringed turf construction that is associated with a standing stone.

It should be noted that, being situated on working farms under cultivation, the plow has obliterated substantial portions of these constructions.  That said, the Kilkivan constructions are protected historical monuments today.  But the damage has been done.

The Kilkivan prehistoric earthworks are circular or oval concentric turf rings that "may" be built from a rock core covered by turf, are about 25 to 35 feet in diameter, and are little more than one foot in height.  The concentric turf banks are perhaps five feet in width.  In rough grassland, these low banks (little more than a foot in height) are somewhat imperceptible.

A Bronze Age dating for these constructions is far from certain, however.  They have not been excavated...at least not scientifically.  As early as the 19th century, surveys noted that square holes had been dug into the center of these ring bank enclosures at some point in antiquity.  Whatever may have been there was either removed or so disturbed that archaeological context cannot be determined.

May 12, 1930 Proceedings, Kintyre Hist. Soc.

While a few graves are known to subsequently have been added to other similar ring "cairns" elsewhere in the U.K. (doubtless the assumption of the early looters), that does not seem to be their original purpose.  Current thought is that these were not funerary monuments.  And the purpose of these features remains unknown.

Similar low profile ring constructions are unusual in Argyll.  And the small "saucer barrow" is not known elsewhere in Argyll.  In that sense, the Kilkivan constructions--whatever they are--are somewhat "unique".  Concentric ring enclosures are more commonly located in Wales and Cornwall.  Thus, it may be that these Kilkivan works were built by a new group of people who moved into lower Kintrye.

As for possible prehistoric practices that found their way into Christian rites, Cnocan a' Chluig became associated with Christian services at Kilkivan.   For some centuries before being recorded in Pennant's 1772 guide book "Voyage to the Hebrides," parishioners were called to devotions by ringing a hand bell from atop Cnocan a' Chluig.

April 15, 2019   Hills at Kilkivan; unknown stone feature with turf rings (?) 

This hand bell itself was actually consecrated, and was named "ceolan naomha"--meaning:  the holy music.  Following the Reformation, this bell was also "appropriated" for municipal use and was incorporated into everyday life in the burgh of Campbeltown.  The town crier (the "news anchor" back in the day) used Kilkivan's "ceolan naomha" to make announcements to the town folk.  The bell was in use at least as late as the mid 1700s, according to Cuthbert Bede's geography on Kintyre (published in 1861 as "Glencreggan").  The location of the bell is now unknown.

Bede also described a most unusual practice at Kilkivan, a matrimonial blind man's bluff of sorts and one that has long been attributed in local lore to St. Kevin (or Coivin) directly.  The medieval ruin of Kilkivan is thought to have been constructed in the 1200s, at or near the chapel established in early 7th century by St. Kevin.  With little doubt, the church at Kilkivan is ancient.

April 15, 2019  Old road into Kilkivan church grounds  

It is said that St. Kevin originally called the people to devotions on the hillock of the standing stone and "ring cairn" at Kilkivan.  Eventually, the congregation grew in number, and a proper building was required.  The peculiar procedure of divorce carried on at Kilkivan is therefore older than the existing ruin, and is possibly older than the original chapel itself.  If so, the rite must have derived from the  prehistoric practices of the former pagan population. 

A solemn rite of divorce was apparently instituted once a year at Kilkivan.  Unhappy couples were invited to Kilkivan late at night.  At midnight, St. Kevin and his assistants would blindfold the unhappy couples and stampede them in a pell-mell race around the chapel three times in the dark...which is curiously a number suggestive of the prehistorical concentric turf rings there.

April 15, 2019  Interior of Kilkivan Church ruin; (double gable) 

Immediately upon the race being completed in confusion, Kevin is said to have shouted:  "Cabhag! (meaning "Seize quickly!)  Every man would then lay hold of the first female near him, and that would be his wife--young, old, pretty or not--at least until the next year's blind race.

Of architectural interest, the remaining gable wall of Kilkivan Church looks like it supported a double gable roof.  If this was the building's roof configuration, it would have been fairly unique in its day.  Possibly, the double gable resulted from a subsequent addition being shouldered against an earlier, more typical, narrow rectangular single gable medieval chapel.  In any case, the ruins show several additions were made to the chapel prior to 1772, when Pennent described Kilkivan as a ruin.

April 15, 2019  Medieval grave slabs at Kilkivan Church, Kintyre

In Kilkivan cemetery itself, a generally unheralded group of medieval grave slabs can still be seen in place.  This is somewhat surprising.  Normally such a collection of medieval slabs would, by now, have been removed and displayed ex situ in a museum somewhere for their protection.  

As would also more normally be the case, such an exquisite large group of medieval slabs would be more prominently featured in various travel guides.  Perhaps it is a blessing that it has not been.

April 15, 2019  A row of ruined dwellings at Kilkivan

Lastly, on the upper "kit" of Kilkivan, we inspected what looked like a group of row houses.  Whether this was the parsonage of the church, or part of the old settlement of Kilkivan, was uncertain.  Interpretive signage was not present on the site.  If these were row houses and part of Kilkivan settlement, then these ruins probably resulted from the Highland Clearances.

By the 1740s, only 30 years before Pennent's 1772 description of Kilkivan as a ruin, a large number of lower Kintyre's people had migrated to the Cape Fear Settlements in North Carolina.  The emptying of the Highlands would continue for another 150 years.

Ancient Kilkivan, now empty and silent except for the wind once had a relatively significant population, was a parish of considerable importance...over no inconsiderable length of time.

raison d'etre

The raison d'etre (at least the official reason) for our vacation on Islay in 2017 was the pending centennial of the sinking of the S.S. Tuscania, in conjunction with world wide ceremonies marking the end of World War One.  Paying our respects at the American Monument was an obligatory honor.

March 24, 2017  American Monument on the Oa, Islay 

In late 2016, as President of the Idaho County Historical Society, preparations began for a public commemoration to mark the 100th anniversary of the Tuscania's sinking.  Of course, preliminary "work" was required...and so a visit to the American Monument on the Mull of Oa was scheduled.  (I know, I know.  Tough work, but somebody had to do it.)

March 24, 2017  At the American Monument, Mull of Oa, Islay, Argyll & Bute, Scotland

Darla and I saved the visit  to the Oa for our last full day on Islay, March 24, 2017.  The trip out to the American Monument only helped impress upon us that the landscape, the shoreline, of Argyll's Hebrides is jagged, imposing, unforgiving.  At the time of our visit, the sea was relatively placid, though with a strong constant wind field on the heights of the cliffs.

March 24, 2017  View toward Ireland, the North Channel off Islay, resting place of the Tuscania

The landscape also was a stark reminder of the unfathomable horrors our American Doughboys endured on the night of February 5, 1918...in what were very heavy winter seas that smashed them into the Oa, many perishing at Port na Gallan.

March 24, 2017  Port na Gallan on the Oa, east of the American Monument

Islay itself was inundated with American bodies from the Tuscania in February 1918.  Nearly a hundred dead washed up into the Lochindaal, the great bay which nearly divides Islay.

March 24, 2017  View of the Rinns across the Lochindaal from the American Monument

More washed ashore at Port Ellen on Jura Sound, at Kilnaughton.  The hale and hardy Illeach would again be inundated with the horror of more American dead in late October 1918, with the calamity of the troopship S.S. Otranto off Machir Bay on the Rinns.

March 24, 2017  Kilnaughton Military Cemetery at Port Ellen

While it may promote misty eyes, our nation owes a profound debt of gratitude to the Illeach for their honor and dignified respect of our American warriors, and their generosity and compassion for our wounded survivors.  We are bound, they and us.  Idahoan to Illeach, forever.

March 24, 2017  Kilnaughton 

Serendipitous perhaps, but my historical work on the Tuscania did not start out that with that intent.  It began in or about 2008 while researching Confederate veterans in Idaho who, having nothing remaining following Appomattox, migrated West to the newly discovered Idaho gold fields and managed to build a Territory into a State.

One of these Confederate pioneers, Judge Lycurgus Vineyard who helped write significant portions of the Idaho Constitution, was buried in an unmarked grave.  A request was forwarded to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, and in 2009 Judge Vineyard's grave received a monument.  At that time, my research did not indicate surviving descendants.  But, ongoing efforts indicated that he had two, one of whom was Judge Vineyard's son, Richard.

Dick Vineyard, possibly the first airplane pilot in Idaho, was aboard the Tuscania with the 100th Aero Squadron when she was struck. 

March 24, 2017  The Oa in flat seas

In following up this Vineyard information, it was apparent that Idaho sustained her first combat casualty in World War One in the Tuscania ordeal--William I. Droogs, a forester from Mount Idaho, Idaho County--when the Tuscania was torpedoed in the North Channel just off Islay at nightfall, February 5, 1918.  Latah County also sustained her first loss as well--John C. Robertson from Moscow (University of Idaho).

In February 2013, the Idaho County Historical Society made a presentation in honor of Private Droogs, to commemorate the 95th anniversary of the Tuscania sinking.  Present were direct descendants of Droogs, who evidently learned for the first time the fate of their grandfather.  It too was heart moving, because they did not know...Droogs, a widower, left three orphan children in Idaho County...and then came the Great Depression and a Lost Generation.

That said, it is for this very reason historical societies do what we do.  John 18:9  "This is the will of Him who sent Me, that I shall lose none of those He has given Me, but raise them up at the last day."

March 24, 2017  The American Monument from heights above Port na Gallan

One Ring to Rule Them All...

Celtic Christian sacred sites and memorials, many of them reaching beyond historical records, are omnipresent in west Scotland today.  But, it was not always so.

March 27, 2017  Hadrian's Wall at Cawfields

Just over the edge of the northwestern armed border of the Roman Empire (defined by Hadrian's Wall), Scotland was considered ceded by classical civilization as a wild and pagan barbarian land.

The question is, "So, when was wild Scotland evangelized?"

March 21, 2017  War Memorial Cross, Paisley Abbey  

Conflicting accounts (or tales) claim Christianity was initially brought to Britannia by a variety of Apostles immediately following the Crucifixion of Christ at Jerusalem.  Most often proffered are:  Joseph of Arimathea, or the Apostle Paul during his "missing six years". This folk lore largely began circulating after the Norman Conquest in 1066 A.D.  It linked the introduction of Christianity in Britannia to the Apostles.  While plausible, it is not taken as factual, with one notable exception.

What is fact, however, is that Christianity was known to Rome's Legions.  So, at minimum, Lowland Scotland received the Gospel contemporaneous with Britannia, as the faith was brought upon the backs of Rome's Legions to the "Old North" buffer states--like the Votadini--along Hadrian's Wall.

Though typically considered as such, Hadrian's Wall was not the limit of Rome's reach in the British Isles.  Many Roman garrison forts (and settlements) supported the Antonine Wall, 100 miles further north and built 20 years (c. 142 to 144 A.D.) after  Hadrian's Wall was constructed (c. 122 to 130 A.D.)...both defensive fortifications were built late in the first Christian century.

April 4, 2018  "Sycamore Gap"--Hadrian's Wall

Even earlier (though occupied for a far shorter time), the Gask Ridge Roman defensive fortifications (c. 70 to 80 A.D.) were built north of the Antonine Wall.  Ongoing archaeology suggests that these Roman defenses were actually re-occupied and repaired several times.  So the influence of Rome penetrated deeply into Caledonia, over an extended time.

March 27, 2017--Walltown Crags, Hadrian's Wall

Further, Roman coastal forts and settlements also existed, like Carpow at the Firth of Tay, supported from the sea by the Roman fleet.  Carpow was established essentially adjacent to Clatchard Craig, an important site that was continuously occupied since the early Neolithic Age (c. 4000 B.C.) by predecessors to the people Rome knew as Otalini.

Carpow, a maritime Roman installation with a substantial granary, is assumed to have been Horrea Classis, Rome's naval base in the region.  Pottery and coin finds indicate that Capow, a considerable distance north of Hadrian's Wall, was occupied from 180 A.D. to at least as late as 217 A.D. under emperor Caracalla--during the late second Christian century.

As Carpow indicates, Roman forts or settlements paired alongside native "Caledonian" settlements created cultural exchange.  As an example of the potential cultural exchange, Roman inscriptions at the Antonine Wall attribute its construction to Legio sexta victrix, "The Victorious Sixth Legion".  The Sixth Legion returned to Judea in 69 A.D. and fought in the Jewish War (66 - 73 A.D.)  The implication being that this legion had direct experience and with some of the earliest of all Christians in the empire.

In this cultural exchange, on the whole, Christianity was likely introduced into present day Scotland.

April 4, 2018--Hadrian's Wall

In terms of early documentation, Hippolytus (c. 170 - 235 A.D.) claimed that the Disciple Aristobulus evangelized Britain.  According to Hippolytus, Aristobulus (see: Romans 16:10) was one of the 70 Apostles sent out by Christ (see: Luke 10:1). 

Aristobulus is considered (by the Orthodox Church) to have been the brother of the Apostle Barnabas, a Greek Cypriot.  The Orthodox say Aristobulus was the first Bishop of Britannia.  Interestingly however, Hippolytus said Simon the Zealot (not Aristobulus) was the first Bishop of Britannia.  According to Hippolytus, Simon made at least two trips there.

One of the most obscure Apostles, Simon the Zealot is variously claimed to have been martyred in--Lebanon, Jerusalem, Samaria, Persia and Georgia (Iberia).  But, with a specificity not given to the other traditions, Simon is also said to have been martyred in Britain on May 10, 61 A.D. by Catus Decianus, Roman Procurator of Britannia at Caistor (Linconshire) under the infamous Emperor Nero.

Hippolytus' early account was recorded over 800 years prior to the Norman conquest at Hastings in 1066 A.D.  That is significant because, after the Norman conquest, claims that Christianity in Britannia was ushered in by the Apostles found circulation.  Perhaps as a means to foster nationalism or bolster claims of seniority in the ecclesiastical hierarchy.

While the history of early Christianity in Britannia (and Caledonia) is obscure, Britannia certainly had Christian communities, at a relatively early date.

March 29, 2017  The Aemilia Ring

As for direct physical evidence, the "Aemilia Ring" (now housed in the Hancock Museum at Newcastle) is thought to be the earliest known Christian artifact discovered in Britain. It is truly precious beyond measure.

The Aemilia Ring was discovered in 1840 at Corbridge, locally called Coria, a tribal center of Brythonic Celtic Otalini (or Votadini) at least as early as 800 B.C.

Corbridge, the most northerly town in Roman Britannia, was a strategic location--on the lowest fordable part of the Tyne River.  Therefore, economically, it was an important trading crossroads at the junction of the Stanegate Road (which ran east-west along Hadrian's Wall from Newcastle to Carlisle) and Dere Street, the north-south trunk road from Eboracum (York) to the Antonine Wall.

The gold Aemilia Ring, is complex in its design, considering goldsmith tools in that age.  The ring dates from the late 2nd to early 3rd century A.D. (180 to 220 A.D.)--roughly contemporary with the histories written by Hippolytus.

180 A.D., the earliest potential date on the Aemilia Ring, was a turning point in Western history.  Marcus Aurelius (last of the "Five Good Emperors") died and was replaced his 18-year old son, Commodus--the mad Emperor subject of the 2000 Hollywood film "Gladiator".

180 A.D. was also the year in which Corbridge was mostly burned by an invasion of the Caldeonians (by this time normally called "Picts") across Hadrian's Wall.  Generally considered an internationally peaceful period during the first decade under the mad Commodus, a few revolts nevertheless boiled over.  The statesman and historian Cassius Dio, a contemporary of this time, noted:  "the greatest struggle was the one with the Britons".

"The tribes of that island, crossing the wall that separated them from the Roman legions, proceeded to do much mischief and cut down a general together with his troops."   That general was possibly Caerellius Oriscus.  It took Rome until 184 A.D. to bring the British revolt to heel.

"Born in the purple," Commodus eventually proved a megalomaniac.  His first act as Emperor was to devalue Roman currency, the largest devaluation since the reign of Nero over 110 years earlier.  Cassius Dio said of Commodus that his accession marked Rome's descent:  "from a kingdom of gold, to one of iron and rust."

March 29, 2017  Aemilia Ring, Newcastle

Cassius Dio's first hand account stated that Commodus' "great simplicity, however, together with his cowardice, made him the slave of his companions."

The Aemilia Ring, thought to be a Christian betrothal gift, likely witnessed all of these events from  distant  Britannia...the dark days of Commodus, and his ultimate assassination on December 31, 192 A.D. and the following chaos of 193 A.D.--"The Year of Five Emperors" as Rome descended into one of its many internecine civil wars, ultimately resulting in Septimius Severus seizing the throne.

And the Aemilia Ring very well may have even witnessed the day of Emperor Severus's death in Britannia, at York in February 211 A.D.

As for direct evidence of the beginning of Christianity in present day Scotland, one more story needs telling.

For the most part, Rome had abandoned Scotland by the end of the 160s A.D.--with the  proviso being that several re-occupations of former strongholds occurred.

Generally, to keep their borders secure, Rome often used bribes to client and buffer states like the Votadini.  A stunning confirmation of this practice was unearthed in 1921 during excavations at Traprain Law, a hill fort that had been occupied since 1000 B.C.  Thought to have been the capitol of the Votadini, at some point in the early 5th century (c. 410 to 425 A.D.) a cache of Roman silver scrap was buried at Traprain Law, just south of the Firth of Forth. 

The hoard consisted of 22 kilograms (over 48 pounds) of silver vessels and tableware (over 250 pieces), most cut for melting into bullion.  Within this hoard, several Christian objects--a silver bowl with the Christian sign of the fish and a silver spoon clearly bearing the Chi-Rho Latin symbol for Christ--were discovered.

Silver spoon, stamped with the Christian symbol Chi Rho--Traprain Law hoard 

Thus, Christianity was clearly in evidence in Scotland by the time the Romans abandoned Britannia in 411 A.D.  As argued, however, it likely found its way into Scotland as early as mid-first century of the Christian era, through the evangelizing of the Disciple Aristobulus and Apostle Simon, the Zealot, and certainly upon the backs of the Roman legions by the late 100s A.D.

March 29, 2017  The Aemilia Ring on display  Hancock Museum, Newcastle

Euphemisms

The Viking Age.   Today, under a pagan-like insistence on political correctness--or at least the present day conceptualization of "correctness"--the Viking invasion and occupation of Scotland is now called "Scandinavian Scotland".  Certainly, that style invokes softer sentiments.  In reality though, it was an age of systematic rape, genocidal murder, mindless destruction, pillage and plunder...things typically associated with the term "Viking". 

March 26, 2018  Iona Abbey overlooking Martyrs Bay

Viking incursions into the Northern Isles (Orkney and Shetland) began in the late 700s.  The term "rapid deployment" should be mentioned.  From some Norwegian fjords under favorable conditions, Viking longboats could reach the Northern Isles in 24 hours.  Even by today's military standards, that is a remarkable projection of force in-theater.

From the Northern Isles, the Norsemen expanded southward, down the western seaboard of present day Scotland and into the thalassocracy of Dal Riada--the Inner Hebrides and the Argyll dominions of the Lords of the Isles.

March 26, 2018  Restored St. John's Cross, Iona

In 795, two years after their infamous sack of Lindisfarne, Vikings struck the spiritual heart of Dal Riada--the Holy Isle of Iona.  In its heyday, Iona had amassed possibly the greatest library in all of Europe.

Vikings struck Iona again in 802, and then again in 806 when they slaughtered nearly 70 monks on Iona's shore, a heinous act that is commemorated by what today is called Martyrs Bay.  In the face of the relentless onslaught by Norsemen, monks from Iona sailed west to Ireland with the Book of Kells--that priceless masterpiece of Celtic art--and established the monastery at Kells in County Meath.

The Book of Kells, an illuminated manuscript of the four Gospels drawn upon calf skin vellum, however, was created by scribes at Iona.  In some respects, it shows the "cosmopolitan" connections, or at least trade routes, existing to the Isles in the late 8th century.  The pigments and ochres of the Book of Kells were sourced  from the Mediterranean.  Its lapis lazuli was from Afghanistan.

Iona was then essentially abandoned.  By 849 A.D., when the relics of St. Columba were removed to Ireland for safe keeping, Vikings had essentially conquered the whole of the Inner Hebrides.

Although the history of the 9th century remains obscure, a number of sources suggest the Vikings had completed their conquests.  For example, the replacement of former Gaelic names by Norse--the linguistic study of which is called toponymy.  For the next several hundred years, the Hebrides were Viking, er, Scandinavian Scotland.

March 26, 2018  The Abbey at Iona

Dark Ages time boundary

The year 383 A.D. has often been used as the beginning of the Dark Ages.  It is a clean cut date, albeit too clean.  It is based upon accepting the account as written by Gildas, a Briton monk with a few axes to grind in his multi-volume "histories" written in 540 A.D., about 150 years after.

Gildas assigned blame for Rome's abandonment of Britannia squarely upon Flavius Magnus Maximus.  According to Gildas, Maximus emptied Britainnia of all Roman forces in 383 A.D., and Rome never returned.

Actually, Roman troops remained in Britannia for 25 years following Maximus' withdrawal of some of the island's forces in 383 A.D. .  Maximus sailed over the Channel with his Britannia forces to fight (successfully) Emperor Gratian in Gaul for the throne of the Western Roman Empire.  His was a temporary success.  Typical for Roman Emperors who seized power with the sword, Maximus also lost power five years later when he was defeated and executed by Theodosius.

Regardless, Gildas' date of 383 A.D. for Rome's abandonment of Britannia is incorrect.  Though documentary evidence is somewhat sketchy, Flavius Stilchio, "last of the Roman generals," made a punitive strike with Roman army and naval assets deep into Caledonia (Scotland) in 398 A.D. during Stilchio's Pictish War.  After which, he made repairs to Hadrian's Wall in 400 A.D.

Direct physical evidence of Roman "abandonment" of Britain much later than Gildas' claim is today routinely being unearthed in Britain by "metal detectionists".  Many bronze Roman coin hoards are found that date at least as late as 402 A.D.  That said, bronze Roman coins that date after 402 A.D. are relatively rare in Britain.  But, they are not unknown.  Thirteen have been discovered so far.

In 2007, metal detectionists unearthed a bronze coin hoard (8 coins, dated from 402 to 406 A.D.) about a mile north of Hadrian's Wall.  This recent find changed the prevailing view on when Hadrian's Wall was abandoned...logically, that had to occur sometime after 406 A.D.

Bronze AE3 follis obverse; 19mm (Constantine--struck 307-337 A.D.); personal collection  

Gold and silver coinage continued to be sent to Britannia until the time of Constantine III 407-411, as evidenced in several unearthed hoards.  But these numismatic discoveries indicate that bronze coinage had essentially stopped being sent to Britain after 402 A.D.  Bronze Roman coinage is thus a key to date the onset of the Dark Ages--which is to say the abandonment of Britannia.

Roman troops were paid in bronze coin.  Therefore, the relative absence of bronze coins in hoards that date after  402 A.D. implies that Roman troops essentially were not paid, or were paid irregularly from about 403 A.D.   Unpaid, operating under a broken chain of command, Rome's remaining Britannia legions eventually dissolved into the local population.

Bronze AE3 follis reverse; (Constantine, Glory of the Army); ASIS mintmark; personal collection 

Rome's constant civil wars had emboldened Scotti (Irish), Saxon pirates and Pict raiders into Britannia.  Nature abhors a vacuum.  Stilicho's assault into Caledonia in 398 A.D. did temporarily check "barbarian" raids.  But without continued Roman military vigilance, attacks grew in fury and frequency with each new Roman draw down of its military assets in Britannia and the provinces of continental Europe.

Having been abandoned, and left with no other options, the remaining Roman-Britons "dispensed" with imperial authority and raised arms to defend themselves.  The lamp of classical Rome, already flickering in Britannia by the late 4th century, was finally extinguished in 410 A.D. when Romano-Britons expelled Constantine III's remaining magistrates.  Britons then rejected Roman law, replaced it with native customs and seceded from the Roman Empire in revolt.  Thus, the Dark Ages began in former Roman Britannia by "about" 411 A.D., roughly coincident with the sack of Rome by Goths under King Alaric (August 24, 410 A.D.).

"About" 411 A.D. is a hedge.  The Anglo Saxon Chronicles, written several hundred years after the facts, stated that in 409 A.D. "This year the Goths took the city of Rome by storm, and after this the Romans never ruled in Britain."  Here, the Chronicles are off by about one year.

Curiously (and seemingly contradicting its date of Rome's abandonment), the Anglo Saxon Chronicles go on to state that in 418 A.D.:  "This year the Romans collected all the treasures that were in Britain, and some they hid in the earth, so that no one has since been able to find them; and some they carried with them into Gaul."

The account for 418 A.D. in the Anglo Saxon Chronicles accurately describes the hoarding of Roman coins and valuables...hoards which have only recently begun to be discovered by metal detectionists across Britain in our modern age. 

So, the absolute date of the start of the Dark Ages is 418 A.D.  The axiom is...hordes equal hoards.

As we have noted, bronze coins later than 402 are extremely rare in Britain (there are 13 recordedby PAS),

35

 and no hoards of bronze coins were known until a small group of eight

nummi

 was dis-covered at Whittington in Northumberland, just about one mile north of Hadrian’s Wall, in 2007.

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 This contained a GLORIA ROMANORVM three emperors type which is dateable to 402–06 (fig. 6.3).This hoard changed our perceptions of the date of the abandonment of Hadrian’s Wall.