Like all the Celtic-speaking tribes, the Picts were a warrior people. Roman records speak of them breaching Hadrian's Wall to the south of their lands many times, sometimes in alliance with the Scots and the Britons. It is known that when not allied against invaders, they regularly fought amongst themselves, in dynastic struggles between the great tribal families that supplied the Mormaers (Great Stewards) or under-kings of the Islands and seven provinces of Pictland. Throughout the centuries they lived in Scotland, the Picts raided and fought against invasions by the Romans, Britons, Scots, Angles and Norsemen.

The Picts' most famous battle was fought at Dunnichen (Nechtansmere) in Angus on 20th May 685 AD, when the Northumbrian Angles who had occupied part of Pictland were defeated, and their king killed. The victor in this battle was Bridei mac Bili who, like almost all of the Pictish kings, did not follow his father on the throne, and was not succeeded by his son (Pictish succession seems to have been through the female line).

Bridei's victory is regarded by some historians as laying the basis for the eventual creation of the Scottish nation. If the Northumbrian King Ecgfrith had triumphed, Anglian control might have been consolidated over northern Britain and Scotland might never have existed. .Many of the Pictish stones show well-equipped and dignified warriors on horse and foot.(left) The Benvie Stone, Angus. A Pictish Class II cross slab which clearly shows two warriors, perhaps kings or local chiefsIn 736 AD the Picts captured the chief Scottish stronghold of Dunadd in Argyll, and subjugated the Kingdom of Dal Riada for a time.

The Pictish Boar symbol which is found carved into the bedrock at Dunnadd is believed to have been added arround the time of the Picts occupation.

The Picts and the Romans

The battle of Mons Graupius in 80 AD, at a still undiscovered site, between the Romans under Agricola, and the Caledonians (Picts) under Calgacus, was claimed as a great victory by the Romans, particularly by the historian Tacitus who was Agricola's son-in-law and left the only near contemporary record. The Caledonian confederation was led by Calgacus (the Swordsman) and Tacitus writes of him saying this,

"Whenever I consider why we are fighting and how we have reached this crisis, I have a strong sense that this day of your splendid rally may mean the dawn of liberty for the whole of Britain. You have mustered to a man, and to a man you are free. There are no lands behind us, and even the sea is menaced by the Roman fleet. The clash of battle - the hero's glory - has become the safest refuge of the coward. Battles against Rome have been lost and won before - but never without hope, we were always there in reserved. We, the choice flower of Britain, were treasured in her most secret places. Out of sight of subject shores, we kept even our eyes free from the defilement of tyranny. We.the last men on earth, the last of the free, have been shileded till today by the very remoteness and the seclusion for which we are famed. We have enjoyed the impressiveness of the unknown. But today the boundary of Britain is exposed; beyond us lies no nation, nothing but waves and rocks and the Romans, more deadly still than they, for you find in them an arrogance which no reasonable submission can elude. Brigands of the world, they have exhausted the land by their indiscriminate plunder, and now they ransack the sea. The wealth of an enemy excites their cupidity, his poverty their lust of power. East and West have failed to glut their maw. They are unique in being as violently tepmted to attack the poor as the wealthy. Robbery, butchery, rapine, the liars call Empire; they create a desolation and call it peace".

Victory or not, after 80 AD the Romans kept south of the Forth-Clyde axis manning the Antonine Wall for two periods c.143–154 AD and another period fifty or so years later. The Antonine Wall ditch (left)is still clearly visable to this day. At the time the wall was built the ditch would have been about 12m accross and 4m deep. Constant attacks from the north eventually also over-ran the Hadrian's Wall to the south in 367 AD, the results of what was known as the "Barbarian Conspiracy" in which the Picts were joined by Scots from Ireland and Saxons from Europe.

The Picts and the Scots

It is generally said that the Scots arrived from Ireland into Argyll circa 500 AD though communication between Scotland and Ireland was long established even then. Relationships between the Picts and Scots for the next four centuries varied - at times there was open conflict and at other times intermarriage at a dynastic level, with some kings ruling over both peoples for a time before the eventual amalgamation of the two kingdoms in the 680s.

Under the influence of St. Columba in particular Dalriada became actively involved in expanding its power base in Scotland from the capital Dunadd.

The commanding view from the hillfort of Dunadd, Argyll (left). The Scots spoke Q-Celtic, like modern Gaelic and Irish, and the Picts spoke P-Celtic, like Welsh but their societies were in many ways similar. Both were tribal warrior societies and had never been subjugated by the Romans. As early as 558 AD the king of Dal Riata, Gabran is noted to have made a 'forced withdrawal' from Pictland.

The seventh century was notable for a great deal of dynastic and external struggle in both kingdoms. By the middle of the 8th century Oengus was King of the Picts and set out to control Dalriada. In this he was successful but in the 770s Dalriada broke away again under Aed Finn. Sadly we know little of what happened in the early 9th century but in the 860s the two kingdoms became permanently united under the leadership of the Dalriadan Kenneth MacAlpin who may have had a Pictish mother. Earlier Scottish kings such as Constantine son of Fergus (Castantin son of Uurguist, to the Picts) at the turn of the ninth century and his successor Oengus II (Unuist son of Uurguist) had ruled over both kingdoms suggesting a gradual amalgamation of dynastic lines rather than outright conquest by Macalpin.

The Picts and the Britons

In Dark Age Scotland the Picts had different British peoples as neighbours. Their designation as British is due to the fact they are believed to have spoken a P-Celtic language close to Modern Welsh. Other tribal peoples lived in the area between Stirling and Lothian known as Manau Gododdin and in what was to become the Kingdom of Strathclyde, stretching from Dumbarton to Carlisle. The earliest indigenous record we have in Scotland is in a poem called the Gododdin describing a tragic expedition by warriors of that tribe to a place called Catraeth, read by many as Catterick in Yorkshire.

An early Welsh poem called Y Gododdin has survived telling of a raid to the south by a band of warriors from Manau Guotodin, roughly the area between modern Stirling and Edinburgh. The Gododdin were a group British tribes. Who spoke an early form of Welsh and it seems likely that they were descended, like the Picts, from the earlier people the Romans had called Caledonians. The first historical reference to them is in Ptolemy's map of the late 1st century AD which calls them Votadini. We should bear in mind that one early Roman reference talks of Caledonians and other Picts, the possibility being that Picts in this case was a generic term for all of the peoples north of the Forth-Clyde line. However most scholars see the Gododdin as being British, or Brythonnic and more closely related to the Britons of Strathclyde than the Picts.

The poem itself tells of a virtually suicidal attack on the Angles to the south in which almost the entire warband of 200 men was wiped out. Within a generation or two of this disaster, which is generally thought to have taken place near modern Catterick in Yorkshire, Manau Goutodin had disappeared. By 640 AD the area was under the control of the Northumbrian Angles. The survival of the poem in Welsh literature points up the complicated situation in Scotland after the Romans and several scholars have suggested that the poem itself was composed in Pictland.

The Picts too spoke a P-Celtic form of language, probably very close indeed to that of the Gododdin. There is mention of Pictish warriors in the poem which is also notable for the earliest reference to that greatest of British heroes, Arthur.

In the period up to the seventh century the tribal warrior confederacies of the British Isles were beginning to form into early kingdoms and there were many battles between contending groups both within and between the different tribal confederacies. As with the Scots, the Picts seem to have had kinship relationships with the Strathclyde dynasty. During the period of Pictish near-subjection by the Northumbrians after 672 AD, the uncle of the King of the Picts, Bridei mac Bile - Owen of Strathclyde - had success in battle against the Scots. It is also quite likely that at some point in the seventh century Strathclyde held the overkingship of Pictland due to the intermingled dynastic arrangements of the various kingdoms. It is further probable that the Picts and the Britons of Strathclyde, united by speaking P-Celtic and possibly sharing oral and other traditions, united to fight against both the encroaching Angles and the expanding power of Dalriada at different times. Historical concentration on the leading personalities mentioned in contemporary and near-contemporary sources has tended to lead to over-simplification.

The name Britain has been derived from Welsh Prythein, which like its Gaelic cognate Cruithne was a term used for the Picts.

The Picts and the Angles

Classical sources refer to Angles and other Germanic tribal peoples raiding Roman Britain as early as the 4th century. By the 6th century they had established themselves in much of England founding two separate kingdoms in north-eastern England/south-eastern Scotland. These were Bernicia and Deira which merged under Aethelfrith into the Kingdom of Northumbria in the 590s. From this time on Northumbria adopted a policy of aggressive expansion, defeating the men of the Gododdin, possibly at Catterick around 600 AD and the Dalriadan Scots at Degsastan in 603 AD.

During most of the 7th century Northumbrian kings were the strongest rulers in Britain. Aethelfrith was followed by Edwin, Oswald, Oswiu and Ecgfrith. Under the last two Northumbrian expansion to the north reached its peak despite dynastic marriages with the Britons, Picts and Scots. Their supremacy was underlined at the Synod of Whitby when the Celtic Church was superceded by the power of Rome in most of Britain. Around 640 AD, under Oswald, they began pushing north, at least as far as the Forth filling the vacuum created by the collapse of the Gododdin and further strengthening their position.

Central Scotland was much fought over in this period but by 672 AD Talorcan, Oswald's nephew was king over at least the southern Picts and seems to have been under Northumbrian control. That year saw a major revolt among the Picts against this situation which was ruthlessly suppressed. However the Picts were not finished yet and when Bruide mac Bile became king the situation was set for further conflict. In 685 AD the Northumbrians were led deep into Pictish territory and slaughtered at Dunnichen, a battle which ended their expansionism and laid the basis for the eventual amalgamation of the Scots and Picts and the subsequent creation of the kingdom of Alba which in time became Scotland.

The Battle of Dunnichen

At 3pm on 20th May 685 AD according to Irish annal sources and Bede's history, a battle took place at Dunnichen, near the village of Letham near Forfar in Angus. From the late 650's Northumbrian influence over Pictland had continued to grow till the Battle of Carron circa 672 AD in which the Angles, under their king Ecgfrith totally routed the Pictish army and took control of much Pictish territory. Ecgfrith continued an active policy of expansionism in all directions and it seems likely that the Picts were not capable of facing up to him again till 685 AD. That spring Ecgfrith came north again, probably expecting another decisive victory like that of the Battle of Carron. However king Bruide of the Picts had laid his plans well and the Northumbrian army was led deep into the Pictish province of Circinn, probably by the classic tactic of a small band fighting and then running. It is now thought that the Northumbrian army was eventually lured into the area between the fortified hill of Dun Nechtan (Dunnichen) and the boggy ground known as Nechtan's Mere or Linn Garan, the Pool of the Herons. Here the fleeing Picts turned on Ecgfrith's troops and others probably came upon them from behind, while yet more Pictish warriors poured down from the hill-fort.

n Aberlemno, a few miles from Letham there is a magnificent Pictish Cross-slab depicting a battle, the details of which support the contention that it represents the Battle of Dunnichen, although the stone is thought to be a half century or so later than the battle. (right) The Aberlemno Battlescen.e In the ensuing battle the Northumbrians were routed, suffering many casualties including the death of their king. Effectively this rout put an end to Northumbrian expansionism and ensured the continuance of the Kingdom of the Picts which in time combined with Scottish Dalriada to form Scotland.

The Picts and the Norse.

In 793 AD a group of Viking raiders attacked the monastery of Lindisfarne in Northumbria heralding the start of a long period of raids on Scotland's coastal areas with occasional forays into the centre of the country. These Germanic-speaking warriors from Scandinavia were in many ways similar to the indigenous peoples but were possessed of one specific tactical advantage - their longships - equally efficient on sea or river.

Over the next century or so the Norsemen took over territory in many parts of the British Isles and were successful in wresting much of northern Scotland from Pictish control. They took Orkney and Shetland, many of the Hebrides, Caithness and much of Sutherland. In 839 AD a battle took place between the Norsemen and a combined force of Picts and Scots, probably led by Eoganan, king of both peoples. He was killed along with many of the ruling dynasties of both peoples and it might have been this that led to the way becoming open for Kenneth MacAlpin to ascend the Dalriadan throne in the next year. Such a defeat probably gave some impetus towards the amalgamation of the Picts and Scots - uniting against an outside invader usually brings related tribes together even when they normally fight each other. At various times in the 9th century the Norsemen seem to have come very close to overrunning and perhaps permanently conquering much of Scotland. The outcome of this was the eventual establishment of the Gall-Gael (stranger Gael) kingdoms of the West and the eventual Lordship of the Isles, as the invaders turned into settlers. Within a century or so of their initial raids the Norsemen were settled in Galloway, the Western Isles, Man and Dublin and were becoming involved in marriages with the established dynasties. The Norsemen had their own style of rock art - the most common in Scotland being the hogback memorial stones.

(above) A Norse style hogback stone from Govan, Strathclyde.The continuing Viking raids over the ensuing centuries gave rise to many traditional tales associating the Pictish Symbol Stones with Danish or Viking invaders, the most notable being Sueno's Stone at Forres on the Moray coast which probably really represents a battle between southern forces of Scots, or Picts and Scots, and the Men of Moray, long the northern focus of Pictish affairs.