The Highlanders of Scotland - Clan Strachan Society

CHAP. I] OF SCOTLx'\ND 13
between the time of Gildas and that of St. Columba, and that
date has been fixed at the year 503, partly by the direct authority
of Tighernac, Flann of Bute, and others, and partly by the calcu-
lation of the reigns of their kings, of whom several lists have
been preserved.
Such is a simple statement of the leading facts of the early
history of Scotland derived from the Roman authors ; and a
strict adherence to them as the best sources of our early history,
and an accurate mode of reasoning, from the facts contained in
them, have brought us to the following conclusions ; viz.— that
the Picts are the descendants of the ancient Caledonians ; that
these Picts or Caledonians remained the only inhabitants of
North Britain till the beginning of the sixth century ; that a
colony of Scots from Ireland effected a settlement in the island
about that time, and that they had firmly established themselves
there, and possessed considerable extent of territory in the time
of St. Columba, or about sixty years later, and continued in the
same state down to the time of Bede in the eighth century.
The great question therefore which we have now to determine
is, to which of these two nations the Highlanders of
Scotland owe their origin, and this is a question which must
depend in a great measure upon the nature and effects of that
revolution generally termed the Scottish conquest, which took
place in the middle of the ninth century, and which united the
various inhabitants of Scotland under the government of one
monarch. But of this subject, we shall treat in the next chapter.