The Makers of Scotland: Picts, Romans, Gaels and Vikings

by Tim Clarkson

During the first millennium AD the most northerly part of Britain evolved into the country known today as Scotland. The transition was a long process of social and political change driven by the ambitions of powerful warlords. At first these men were tribal chiefs, Roman generals or rulers of small kingdoms. Later, after the Romans departed, the initiative was seized by dynamic warrior-kings who campaigned far beyond their own borders. Armies of Picts, Scots, Vikings, Britons and Anglo-Saxons fought each other for supremacy.

From Lothian to Orkney, from Fife to the Isle of Skye, fierce battles were won and lost. By AD 1000 the political situation had changed for ever. Led by a dynasty of Gaelic-speaking kings the Picts and Scots began to forge a single, unified nation which transcended past enmities. In this book the remarkable story of how ancient North Britain became the medieval kingdom of Scotland is told.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Scotland, Audiobook, Medieval, Medieval History, Ireland

272 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 2012

About the author

An independent historian writing (and blogging) about early medieval Scotland.

Reviews

[Ashley Marie · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars

Semi-dry, and a handful of events/people I was previously familiar with, but there's not much in the way of a beginning-to-end narrative because Clarkson jumps around. Wishing they could have found a Scottish narrator for the audio. The information on the Picts was interesting.

Audiobook read by David Vickery.

[pennyg · Rating 3 out of 5]

Obviously well researched, admirably pointing out the need for careful study as any historical or written records are scarce and typically biased in favor of political or religious interests. The content interesing and certainly worth the read if you are interested in the subject. However this was not an easy or fun read ( no doubt I have been spoiled by Dan Jones ). The narrative style was more rambling and chaotic than consise making for a challenging read.


 

[Percival · Rating 2 out of 5]

Other reviewers have touched on similar concerns, but just to reiterate: The formatting of this book and particularly the decision to compile all sources at the end without in-text reference markers is... highly suspicious. Combined with the fact that every other sentence includes "probably" or "maybe" or "perhaps" or "let's imagine" -- it is extremely difficult to parse the author's personal favorite theories from reliable knowledge.

Of course, it is difficult to state absolutes about a time and place with relatively few surviving materials and especially written records, but I would have felt more sure-footed while reading this book if the author had clearly shown his reasoning with a method more substantial than flippantly dismissing some ideas (no matter how widely accepted) and desperately holding up others based on what feels like little more than hopes and dreams.

Additionally, his decisions for what to include versus what not to include (seemingly always choosing the former) made it difficult to establish a clear thread between major events. Many rulers were replaced just a few years after assuming power before they accomplished anything of note. Dr. Clarkson sees fit to list every single one of these persons, no matter what. Establishing an extended trajectory for each culture and kingdom was like wading through a swamp between tiny spots of dry land.

The 2 stars come from the fact that overall I believe I did gain a general idea of the history of the island of Britain with a focus on Scotland, but I will have to do a greater amount of further reading than expected because the way Dr. Clarkson chose to write this book makes him an unreliable narrator.

I would only recommend this book (and even then with caveats) to those who have already devoted significant study to this time and place, because they will be better equipped to separate accepted truths from speculation.

TLDR: Not for beginners!

[Melisende · Rating 3 out of 5]

A second reading - so obviously very happy with the book.

[Cliff M · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’m giving it three stars because I listened to the audiobook version and the narration was poor. Otherwise, it is a four. It wasn’t the usual problem of popular history books about Scotland (ie every place name mispronounced) but a narrator who created his own punctuation by stopping talking in the middle of every sentence, then restarting the sentence while (a) making it sound like he had started a new sentence, and (b) joining it to the first half of the next sentence, before stopping again. This requires you to use short-term memory to a much greater degree than normal in order to cut and paste the sentences back together. Never again with this narrator… It also confirms that audiobooks have no editor and the producer does not listen to the recording. Further proof of the lack of diligence came when the narrator said “The Firth of Firth”. Classic!

As for the book (I strongly recommend a hard copy). The author does a great job of rattling through the first millennium AD in the northern part of the main British Isle (now called Scotland). Sometimes it does just feel like an endless list of regional kings getting anointed one minute and murdered the next, but overall it is the best summary I have read of those times. And it piqued my interest enough to buy some of the books sold by Edinburgh University Press on specific parts of that millennium (which go into more detail) plus some on the centuries that followed immediately afterwards. I think if a book wets your interest to this degree, then it is a good book.
The only disappointment of the book for me was you never get to hear about ordinary people, just the (ridiculously short-lived) kings. I guess ‘ordinary people’ comes under ‘anthropology’ not ‘history’, so I will need to look elsewhere for information on them.

[Karen Floyd · Rating 3 out of 5]

Clarkson leaves two important groups out of the subtitle - the Britons and the English - because, he says that though both groups were "major players" in Scotland's early history, "their names convey no specific sense of time and place to the reader." I would venture to say that is not true of all readers, though their inclusion would make the subtitle ridiculously bulky. But that is a minor quibble, though it does not convey the breadth of the make-up and history of pre-Medieval Scotland.
Then author's purpose is to create, perhaps reveal would be a better word, a linear history of Scotland from before the Roman invasion of "Britannia" to the unification of Scotland under one king, and, finally, the arrival of the Normans. Clarkson does a fine job of this, tip-toeing carefully between ancient written sources (which are always questionable due to their point of view and purpose) and modern archeology. Where the book becomes a bit confusing and repetitive is that Clarkson separates out the development of Christianity and its influence on life and events and addresses it as an individual subject. I found this to disrupt the flow of the narrative.
Other than that, I found this book very informative, well written and well researched, and would definitely recommend it. As a side-note, I found my copy at my state's annual Highland Games. Stay alert! Books can be found anywhere!

[Alan R · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a very poorly written book. It refers to individuals without any prior description and speaks about places without maps indicating the whereabouts. The narrative seems to follow no logical course. It is not worth your time.

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

This history is told in narrative from pre-Roman to the birth of medieval Scotland. The Picts, tribes between the Antonine Hall and Hadrian's Wall, and northern Britons were classified as barbarians not because they lacked culture but because they hadn't fallen under Roman control--yet. Some tribes would become allies and trading partners with Rome, others not so much and when Rome finally pulled out in an attempt to prevent its fall, that left a power vacuum with local tribes jockeying for powers. Some of the tribes and kingdoms mentioned are known but their kings aren't while other kingdoms are lost and geographically can't be identified. Trying to sort out the Pictish kings is problematic as more then one prince might bear the same name and the father's or mother's name might not be known. Then you have some Irish coming over and settling in Argyll becoming known as the Scots and founding the kingdom of Dal Riata. They would fight battles with the Cenel Loairn, Cenel nGartnait, Cenel Comgaill, Cenel Cathbach, and Cenel nOengusa to become overkings of Dal Riata. Columba in his banishment from Ireland would be granted the Isle of Iona by Conall mac Comgaill who became his protector and patron and Iona would florish until the coming of the Vikings after which they would have to move to Kells as Iona had become too vulnerable. A number of other religious houses moved away from the coasts and major rivers as well. By the early medieval time period the Picts and North Britons had been assimilated, the Britons when their language Brittonic was replaced by Gaelic and Malcolm III, King of Scots, subjugated them.

[Laurence · Rating 1 out of 5]

For the most part very dry, would have preferred something less academic.

Did cover some events I'd like to read more about.

I after read Lost Realms by Thomas Williams which was much better, though not as Scottish focused.

[Alister Black · Rating 4 out of 5]

We all know the Scots came over from Ireland, to found Dalriada in Argyll before going on to spread Gaelic across the land through conquest and intermarriage before founding Scotland. Right? Well, probably not.

"We may note at this point that the idea of an Irish colonisation of Argyll exists only in literature. It draws no support from archaeology, linguistic history or the study of place-names."

As a Fifer I enjoyed reading about the Kingdom's intercession into history.

"In 208, the warlike emperor Septimius Severus arrived in Britain to deal personally with the situation on the northern frontier. With him came his sons, Geta and Caracalla, two young men rescued from the sleaze of Rome by a father who regarded the Forth borderlands as a somewhat more wholesome environment."

And finally, worth a read purely for the names alone.

"Drust was finally slain in a battle against Óengus at Druimm-Derg-Blathuug (‘The Red Ridge of Blathuug’), in August 729"

"The Britons, led by their valiant king Teudebur, met the Picts at Mugdock and gained a great victory in which Talorcan was slain."

[Dave Stone · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the second best kind of history book: It's true
I've said it before, I absolutely love history/science books that tell you what we don't know. I love them even more when they tell you something that we thought we used to know, but now have cause to doubt. This is one of those books.
If you seek a beautiful fiction custom tailored to presumptions and packaged as "History" you will likely be disappointed. Likewise if you seek a clear narrative full of certain facts you will be let down as well. There are large gaps in the record, And there has been a great deal of forgery injected for political reasons in the 12th and 14th century.
What is here is very interesting, but not romanticized. Yeah it gets dry in parts, and I had honestly expected there to be more of a "story" here. I'm glad I got what I got, not what I'd expected.

[Grace · Rating 3 out of 5]

Scorecard history

[Kate · Rating 3 out of 5]

"During the first millennium AD a large part of northern Britain evolved into the country we know today as Scotland. This was an era of transition which saw the end of prehistory and the beginning of the Middle Ages. It was an age of wars and alliances, but also a time of trade and settlement. It saw the native Celtic peoples of northern Britain deal with Roman invasions, Viking raids and the predatory ambitions of Anglo-Saxon kings. These upheavals brought social and political changes that are still present in the languages, laws and landscape of modern Scotland. The period also witnessed the arrival of Christianity, the decline of pagan beliefs and the rise of a new religious elite. By c.900 the most significant change was well underway. Led by a dynasty of Gaelic-speaking kings, the Picts and the Scots were merging to form a single nation. As the millennium ended, Scotland was already taking her lace among the great realms of medieval Europe. How the new kingdom arose from the troubled centuries that had gone before is one of the stories told in this book."
~~back cover

This book wasn't what I thought it was going to be.The blurb on the front cover was "Picts, Romans, Gaels and Vikings", which led me to think there would be a section on the Picts, one on the Gaels and one on the Vikings. But that wasn't the case. The book more followed a timeline, and was just chucky jammed with kings and battles, as well as early Christians. I did struggle through it but I do wish it had been more what I envisioned than what it was.

[Dave · Rating 3 out of 5]

A compelling first three chapters - BC through the end of the Roman occupation in 410 - but then loses steam afterward, with the exception of a solid outing on the Vikings

- Clarkson does a fine job of setting up the battle of Mons Graupius, giving life to the combatants, the circumstances, and the possibility of an unreliable source (the account of the battle is largely from Tacitus, son-in-law of the victorious general Agricola)

- The highlight of the book is the chronicle of the walls - Hadrian's and Antonine's - how they were built, garrisoned, and how the people to either side of the walls were governed, taxed, and occasionally smacked down if they rebelled

- Did not know until now that the Caledonii were likely absorbed into the Picts

- The book slows down down after Rome says "govern yourself" after 410, with lackluster narratives on religion and clan rivalries

- It picks up a bit with the Vikings chapter and then falls off

Verdict - read the first three chapters, but the remainder can be skipped

[Jodi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mein zweites Buch von Tim Clarkson war genauso interessant wie das vorherige. Was ich bereits zum Titel über die Pikten geschrieben habe, trifft auch hier zu: Es gibt viele Namen und Kriege, teilweise ist der Schreibstil ein wenig trocken, sodass sich diese Bücher vor allem für Lesende eigenen, die sich stark für das Thema interessieren.

Persönlich fehlte mir erneut ein Einblick in das Leben der gewöhnlichen Menschen. Da unterdessen z.B. bezüglich des Alltages der Wikinger einiges bekannt ist, denke ich, dass auch über die Kultur und das tägliche Leben der Menschen ausserhalb des Adels und der Klöster einiges bekannt sein dürfte.

Ansonsten wieder ein aufschlussreiches Werk über ein faszinierendes Thema.

[Hahhima · Rating 2 out of 5]

Zastanawiam się, czy ta książka była napisana w tak nudny sposób, czy dobił ją lektor David Vickery, bo przypominała suchą wyliczankę, a przecież obejmuje tak wielki i fascynujący temat, jakim są początki kształtowania się Szkocji - od Piktów, przez czasy rzymskie i budowy obu murów, po migracje i podboje najeźdźców z Irlandii i Europy, przez naszego starego znajomego Bede i innych kronikarzy ściemniających na rzecz mnisich zapisków, po pieśni, legendy, lokalne podania oraz wiele więcej - okruchy zbierane aż do czasów najazdów Wikingów. Dotrwałam z bólem do końca audiobooka głównie ze względu na interesujący mnie temat, niż wartość tej suchoty. Wyliczanką i złym lektorem czasem niestety Storytel stoi.

[Drew Reilly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not bad, but not great. An interesting, and quick read into the early forces that created the Kingdom of Alba and the Nation of Scotland. The author come across as both an amateur historian and an amateur author, hut that doesn't take away too much from the compelling history of the nation.

[Suzanne English · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting and connects all the power which led to modern Scotland. A little bit dry, but still good especially how the author shows what is legend and what is documented facts. He also ties in how archaeology supports the history.

[Ilia Markov · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very fact/chronicle-based

[Daniel Farabaugh · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a nice read that does a solid job on the history of Scotland. He balances the social, political, and military history well.

[Drake McCrary · Rating 4 out of 5]

While it is definitely the reader's digest version of this history Clarkson does a great job of clearly explaining the confusion mess that is early medieval history in the United Kingdom.

[Richard Marney · Rating 2 out of 5]

Dense and hard to follow through the maze of places, names and dates. A more informative overview and better treatment of themes would have helped.

[Izze Reads · Rating 2 out of 5]

Listening to this was like crawling thru the Sahara

[Janis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting history. I had trouble following the timeline. Jumps around back & forth in time. Not sure what it is in the structure of this book that kept him from taking a straight line by date.

[Maurice Frank · Rating 3 out of 5]

Worth reading because it challenges old assumptions, as basic as the assumption that the Dal Riata Scots came from Ireland, and it tells well how use of names for people groups started, how it was often indiscriminate and not accurately confined to descent groups, and how it was this way that the country ended up with its present name but really we are descended from all the previous peoples here right back to the stone age.

It's not a history of Celtic conquest and replacement, Celt was a generic term we got included in, and Pict was a sort of national descriptive name first used by the Romans to describe a certain collection of tribes including the Caledonii. So the Picts were us all the time. The old small kingdoms were not nations they were in constant flux and innumerable, many of them we have no record of, some named ones don't know where they were even including Rheged, adequacy of evidence for locating it around the Solway is challenged. It makes Scotland feel far more continuous and soldily grounded than did the perception of these as separate people groups. Valuable to learn that the Strathclyde Britons were not Welsh they just spoke it, because language all over Britain went P-Celtic i.e. old Welsh, except around parts of the Scottish west that were isolated landward by mountains and had more contact with Ireland so adopted Gaelic. Scot started as a Roman term for Gaelic speakers around Argyll, "Picts and Scots" represented a language divide, and eventually the name Scot simply prevailed over Pict because the Gaelic culture was more socially advantageous at the time when the culture of small kingdoms was ending and all the king lines blending.

It's good to have the gaps in known history and the unreliability of sources declared clearly and honestly. Wish he had felt less need to make up for it with too frequent descriptions of "perhaps" and "likely". It was frustrating reading the history of the small kingdoms period, too chaotic a narrative to keep track of for writer or reader, and is all focussed on the south, mischievously he calls the Picts of Moray "Moravians!" and he says very little else about the north highlands' history, it is not always kept clear when Bernicia was functioning as a kingdom, and all this does not lead anywhere, as the key figure of Kenneth MacAlpin just appears arbitrarily out of the unknown. And after all that effort, he hardly mentions the Battle of Carham and does not describe at all the emergence of the Tweed border. He does not describe fully the Strathclyde kingdom's ending, how it became a client throne then was abolished. In fact, after reading all that unfollowable toing and froing of the small kingdoms, the ending is rushed and an anticlimax, and lets you down in relation to prominent formative events.

Curious mixture of valuable new challenging insight on the earlier period and total letdown on the period of the Scottish state's emergence.

[Luhnàtic · Rating 3 out of 5]

C'est en visitant le Château d'Edimbourg en avril 2018, que j'ai eu envie de lire plein de trucs sur l'histoire de l'Ecosse. C'est là-bas que j'ai acheté ce livre d'ailleurs, avec une série d'autres sur les Jacobins et la Reine Mary, ainsi qu'une biographie de William Wallace (impossible d'oublier le héros de Stirling).

The Makers of Scotland est une chronologie de la formation de l'histoire de l'Ecosse, de la toute fin du premier siècle avant JC jusqu'au début du Moyen-Âge.
C'est très dense. Le livre en lui-même ne fait qu'un bon 200 pages, mais tout de même, il faut un peu s'accrocher pour arriver à suivre, entre toutes les luttes de territoire, les clans et les rois qui ont le même nom... Sans compter toutes les spéculations des historiens sur les événements des premiers siècles : en effet, les sources primaires du second au Xe siècle sont des textes écrits par des abbés (comportant souvent une part de propagande religieuse) ou des poèmes épiques colportant des légendes avec leur part de merveilleux. Ces supports sont à prendre avec précaution puisque les contextes géographiques et temporels manquent de précisions ou s'avèrent faussés.
Heureusement, Tim Clarkson a intégré plusieurs cartes et arbres généalogiques qui permettent aux lecteur.ices de se repérer (quand on a plusieurs Cinead fils de Malcom et Malcom fils de Cinead, je vous assure que ça aide.).

Cependant, malgré les nombreuses incertitudes sur les événements de l'époque, ce livre est plutôt bien documenté et construit. Il s'achève avec une ouverture sur le début du Moyen-Âge, où l'Ecosse commence tout juste à exister sous ce nom, en tant que territoire unifié, et permet de faire le lien avec les conflits qui s'ensuivront entre Ecosse et Angleterre.
Ce qui marque particulièrement dans cette chronologie selon moi, c'est la résilience des peuples qui habitaient ces territoires nordiques et de leur culture à travers les siècles en dépit de la venue des Romains, des attaques des Anglo-Saxons, et des raids et invasions vikings.
Si je suis contente de connaître les débuts de l'histoire d'Ecosse, je vous avoue que certaines périodes restent un peu floues dans ma mémoire à cause de tous les conflits de clans et de territoires qui avaient lieu (et qui m'ont un peu perdue). Cela dit, je pense que c'est une bonne base pour comprendre le peuple écossais et son histoire à travers les siècles qui ont suivi, et peut-être même jusqu'à nos jours.

[Charles · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Makers of Scotland provides a comprehensive history of early Scotland from shortly before the Roman invasion to the 11th century. It gives accounts on all of the major events and people of early Scotland, from Agricola’s invasion to the forming of Alba. For someone who has never read anything else on early Scotland (like me) it is a perfect introduction to the history of Scotland, but it doesn’t go without its problems.

I enjoyed the first few chapters of the book and could recite the names and places pretty well. After that though, it got somewhat confusing, with giving new names every few pages, and not sticking with them for long. It made it hard to remember everything I read through, but it made sense as they were all important to the story of Scotland. It would have been weird without them, but you should definitely pay attention to not miss anything. I also thought it failed to give much information on northern Scotland and the Highlands before the chapter on Vikings, though this makes sense as there were few records from this time that could be implemented.

Overall, I believe this book was a good introduction to early Scotland, and was clear and concise with its information.

[Roger Burk · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book attempts to do what cannot be done: write a narrative history of northern Britain during the Dark Ages. The sources we have are not adequate to the task: inconsistent king lists, saints' lives that indiscriminantly mix every ounce of history with a gallon of extravagant invention, annals written centuries later that may tell us that a great battle occurred in a given year at an unidentifiable site, without telling us who fought, who won, what was the cause, or what the result. In these ink blots one can see too many different things, according to one's predisposition. And the proof of the impossibility is the author's unsatisfactory result, despite diligent work. Every page is so full of surmise, conjecture, and plausible alternatives that one despairs of following the thread. I would dearly love to know how history unfolded during this time, between the fall of Rome and the arrival of literate Normans, but I no longer hope for it.

[Timothy McNeil · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found it necessary to copy two of the maps from this book (and print another found online) to be able to easily follow Clarkson's narrative in regards to where it took place geographically. Sure, if I knew more about the geography of Scotland, this may not have been much of an issue.

As much as I appreciated Clarkson's more academic bent when discussing the reliability or worth of certain sources or theories, it quickly became tiresome as he took a lot of words to effectively say, 'much of this is simply not credible and I will not treat it as such'.

[Maya · Rating 3 out of 5]

Please read my review of the book at Celtic Scholar's Reviews and Opinions