sutherland-1911/02_015

Transcription

xvi -- HISTORICAL MONUMENTS (SCOTLAND) COMMISSION.

county bear the impress of the prevailing Late Celtic art. The
faint glimmer of light preceding the dawn of history, at a time
when the brochs were certainly in occupation, shows the country
under the rule of the Picts. With the northward expansion of the
Scottish kingdom of Dalriada in the west may be connected the
spread of Christianity into Sutherland and the gradual extension
of the influence of the Scots which, culminated in the union of the
Scottish and Pictish crowns in the middle of the 9th century and
extinction by absorption of the Pictish race as a distinct nationality.
Whether any class of construction noted in the Inventory belongs to
this Scoto-Pictish period is unknown. With the commencement of
history in the 8th or 9th century the Norsemen began their plunder-
ing expeditions on the coasts of Scotland, and abundant traces of their
influence may be recognised in the place-names of this county.
Though this etymological influence was extensive and tells of the
penetration of the Norsemen into many a strath far from the seaboard,
no single structure or construction has been met with in the county
whose origin or occupation is assignable to these invaders. Nor are
personal relics recovered which show that the Celtic art was in any
way influenced by that of Scandinavia.
It is recorded in the Landnamabok that, about the year 874,
Thorstein the Red, son of Olaf the White, Norse King of Dublin,
and grandson of the famous Ketill Flatnose, subdued "Katanes and
Sudrland" (Caithness and Sutherland). According to the Laxdoela
Saga, the Pictish King Constantin acquiesced in this conquest,
which doubtless he was in no position to dispute. Thorstein's rule
was brief; the Chronicle of the Picts and Scots allows him only one
year, and this is corroborated by the Annals of Ulster, where it is
stated that he was treacherously slain in 875 by the people of Alba
(i.e. the Picts or Scots). Howbeit, a more permanent Norse occupa-
tion began about twelve years later, when Sigurd the Powerful, Jarl
of Orkney, again conquered Caithness and Sutherland, establishing
a dominion over them which lasted until shortly after the
beginning of the 13th century, when the line of Norse Earls
failed.
After that, the Celtic element in the population resumed pre-
dominance, though it cannot be doubted that a strong infusion of
Scandinavian blood remains as the effect of three centuries of
Norse occupation.

ECCLESIASTICAL STRUCTURES.

Few indeed are the objects in the county that fall to be noticed
under this heading. Place-names such as Kildonan, Kilphedir,
and Kilournan, the number of early monuments sculptured with
Celtic ornaments and symbols (most of which are safely housed in
the museum at Dunrobin), and the ancient graveyards, all point to
the existence of numerous cells or churches existing in the past, of
which at this day not a trace remains. Here and there only, as in
the graveyard on the island of Handa, or in that near Klibreck on Loch
Naver, is a foundation traceable below the turf which may be that
of a religious building. The oldest church of which any remains
exist is probably the Cathedral at Dornoch (No. 102), first erected