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By the late 200s AD, when history first becomes aware of them, the Picts were already a force to be reckoned with, overrunning the northern frontier of the Roman empire on more than one occasion. Over the next 600 years, that loose confederation of marauding Iron-Age groups developed into an organised and powerful political coalition. They occupied territories to the north of the Firths of Forth and Clyde, as far afield as the outer isles of the west and north. This was a sophisticated society which from the late 500s included the Christian church. Pictish stone from Aberlemno. This face depicts a battle scene. |
Their neighbours were the Gaels, Britons, Angles and, after around 800, the Vikings who invaded from Scandinavia. Pictish society and culture developed in response to these and wider external influences. Except for the artistry of their beautiful but unexplained symbol stones, almost all trace of the Picts was buried, lost to memory. Only now is modern archaeology shedding new light on their lives, their beliefs and their place in the birth of the Scottish nation. View a timeline of Pictish history. |
 St Vigeans Stone no. 015a |