The Highlanders of Scotland - Clan Strachan Society

AND NOTES] OF SCOTLAND 385
In Scotland, therefore, at the beginning of the Christian
era, the racial position would be thus : Belgic Gauls in the
eastern portion of the country from the Firth of Forth to the
Tweed ; parallel to them in the western half, from the Firth
of Clyde to the Solway, were the Picts, still retreating. The
rest of the Picts filled the remaining portion of Scotland from
the Firths to Cape Wrath and the Orkney Isles. The previous
Iberian population, with its admixture of Bronze-age men, were
absorbed by the Celts or driven westwards, where, among the
Isles and on the West Coast, plenty traces of them are still
in evidence. The Roman occupation of the district between
the Walls, that is from the Tyne and Solway to the Clyde
and Forth Wall, no doubt added a new ethnologic factor to
the population there ; and the Brittonic or Belgic Gauls un-
doubtedly came to possess Strathclyde and Dumbarton (the
"dune" of the Britons). In the sixth century the Anglo-Saxons
entered Scotland. The Celts called them Saxons because that
tribe formed the first Teutonic raiders and invaders of Britain,
the Gadelic tribes receiving the name from the Brittonic peoples.
It was, however, the Angles that conquered the eastern halt
of Scotland to the Firth of Forth.
Meanwhile the Scots, who had helped the Picts to harass
the Roman province for a hundred years, had acquired settlements
on the Argyleshire coast and in the Isles. The Scots
were simply the inhabitants of Ireland ; it was their own name
for themselves. Isidore of Saville (600 A.D.) says the name in
the Scottic language meant "tattooed," and, as a matter of
fact, the root word is still alive in the language — Gaelic sgath,
lop off; old Irish scothaini, allied to English scathe. This
makes both Gadels and Picts mean " men of the tattoo." Dr.
Whitley Stokes prefers the root skot, property ; German schatz,
stock ; and translates the word as " owners, masters." The
first invasion of Scotland by the Scots is set down by the
Irish annalists as in the latter half of the second century (circ.
160 A.D.) under Cairbre Riata, whom Bede calls Reuda (Gadelic
* "
Reiddavos Ready-man ? ")
Irish and Scotch Dal-Riadas
Riata gave his name to the
both— " the Tribal portion of
Riata." Possibly additions took place during the Picts and
Scots alliance of 360 to (say) 460, but in any case a great
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