Dumfries and Galloway Viking Saga Trail
Vikings
in the landscape and in history.
Map
Key
1.
Kilmorie Cross, Kirkcolm- Viking/ Christian carved cross.
2.
Ruthwell Cross- Anglo-Saxon cross with runic inscription.
3.
Nithsdale Cross- Anglo-Saxon cross and Viking grave nearby.
4.
Whithorn- Irish (Dublin) Viking connection.
5.
Trusty’s Hill- possible Viking/Pictish carved stone.
6.
Threave- Iron Age, Roman, Viking, Viking-Gael, Medieval centre of
power.
7.
Kirkcudbright-Viking grave, Viking Hoard display
8.
Annandale- Anglo-Saxon, Norman, Bruce family castle and lands.
9.
Carrick-Viking-Gael, Bruce family lands
10.
Buittle- Viking-Gael, Balliol family castle and lands.
From
Kirkcolm in the Rhinns to Ruthwell in Annandale, the discovery of
Dumfries and Galloway’s Viking Hoard has opened up a new
perspective on the region’s rich and complex history.
Without
the Vikings, the region may well have remained part of the Kingdom of
Northumbria to be absorbed into Norman England in the eleventh
century- as Annandale and Eskdale nearly were. Alternatively, the
region might have been absorbed into a Dublin dominated Irish Sea
Viking kingdom- as much of Wigtownshire briefly was.
Instead,
by introducing Gaelic speakers to the region, the Vikings helped
create a ‘Greater Galloway’ in the south-west. As this
Viking-Gaelic region was absorbed into Scotland, the descendents of
Fergus of Galloway and Robert de Brus of Annandale became entangled
in a power struggle which lies at the heart of Scotland’s story.
Vikings
in Kirkcudbright
The
presence -in whole or part- of a Viking Hoard in Kirkcudbright will
attract visitors to the town. As well as the hoard, the visitors to
the new art gallery will discover a set of paintings. Many of these
paintings reflect the landscape of Galloway as it was over 100 years
ago.
Over
the past 100 years the landscape has changed. The expansion of
forestry in the uplands and the intensification of dairy farming in
the lowlands have changed the appearance of the landscape as well as
the lives of those who making their living from the land.
Go
back over 1000 years and the difference between the landscape as it
was then and as it is now becomes even greater. Only the boldest
features -the coastline, the rivers and hills- would be familiar. The
farmed landscape, the roads, villages and towns, marshes and even
some lochs, would all have been very different.
However,
dotted here and there across Galloway and Dumfries are a few fixed
points around which the region’s history has revolved.
For
example the Kilmorie Cross at Kirkcolm near Stranraer combines
Christian and Norse mythological elements drawn from the story of
Sigurd the dragon-slayer. It is dated to the tenth century and shows
that Viking settlers in this area of rich fertile soils had become
Christian. It is therefore a near contemporary of the Hoard.
Kilmorie
Cross, Kirkcolm
In
the east of the region at Ruthwell is an older cross, a product of
the Northumbrian church. It also has a fragment of an Old English
poem, ‘The Dream of the Rood’ carved in runes on it. This is of
great historic significance.
Gauin
doun the sides the’r a poyem carved in
runes in the Auld Angles leid. Cryed the ‘Dream
o the Rood’ (rood bein the auld word for
cross) – this is noo the auldest text in
Auld-Angles that we ken belangs Scotland. It is fae this self an same
Auld-Angles tongue that the Scots spoken the day –
in modren Scotland – is sprung. [Centre
for the Scots Leid]
Ruthwell
Cross with runic inscription.
Close
to Thornhill in Nithsdale there is another, later Northumbrian carved
cross. At Carronbridge nearby, a Viking was buried with his sword a
few yards from a Roman road. Was the Viking part of a raiding party?
Possibly, but the sickle he was also buried with suggests a more
settled lifestyle.
Nithsdale
(Thornhill) Anglo-Saxon Cross
At
Whithorn there Northumbrian bishops from Pehthelm in 730 to
(possibly) Heathored in 833. The church at Whithorn was destroyed by
fire around 850, probably the result of a Viking raid.
Northumbrian
control of Galloway and Dumfriesshire was disrupted by the Vikings.
However, until the discovery of the Galloway Hoard, direct signs of
Viking power in the region were few and slight. These signs included
a Viking grave found in Kirkcudbright and Dublin Viking style houses
dated to the early eleventh century.
Few,
if any, locations in Dumfries and Galloway share the historic depth -
over 1500 years- of Whithorn as a continuously occupied settlement.
More typical of the ebb and flow of the region’s history is
Trusty’s Hill beside Gatehouse of Fleet. This hill fort is most
famous for its Pictish carvings.
Recent
careful analysis of the carvings has suggested that although inspired
by Pictish symbols the images on the stone were not carved by Picts.
One of the images (on right) shows , a ‘dragonesque’ creature
pierced by a spiked object, might be the Norse Fafnir; a greedy
dwarf who became a dragon and was killed by Sigurd.
Trusty’s
Hill rock carving
Kilmorie,
Ruthwell, Nithsdale, Whithorn and Trusty’s Hill are locations where
there was and still is good quality farm land. Such fertile soils
could produce a surplus of food, supporting the people who cultivated
the land as well as their churches and rulers.
Place
name evidence suggest that the Vikings, like the Northumbrians before
them, did not extend their settlements beyond the lower parts of
river valleys and the coastal fringe of Dumfries and Galloway.
However, the Viking Hoard was found well beyond the areas identified
as Scandinavian settlements by place name research.
On
the other hand, not far from where the Hoard was found, the medieval
castle of Threave still dominates the good quality farmland of
Balmgahie, Kelton and Crossmichael parishes. Threave is from the
Brittonic word ‘trev’, equivalent to the Scots ‘Mains’
meaning the home farm of an estate.
Threave
Castle- Historic Environment Scotland
But
there is nothing like the Kilmorie Cross at Threave, no imposing
Northumbrian monuments, no mysterious rock carvings like those on
Trusty’s Hill.
However,
among the treasures of the National Museum are the Torrs Pony Cap and
Carlingwark Cauldron. Along with the complex of Roman forts and
marching camps at Glenlochar, they are signs that Threave was ‘a
centre of paramount wealth and power’ 2000 years ago. The Romans
built their forts at Glenlochar to control the area. Archibald the
Grim followed the Romans when he chose Threave as the site for his
new castle in 1370.
Glenlochar
Roman fort
A
Viking warlord setting up camp in the district would therefore have
been able to draw on the long standing wealth of the land to feed
himself and his followers. No centre of Northumbrian power in the
district has been found, but the complex archaeology of the Hoard
find site might contain evidence of such a power centre, taken over
by Vikings.
The
survival untouched of the Galloway Hoard for over 1000 years suggests
its owner died elsewhere and never returned. Otherwise a Viking
kingdom may have emerged in the lower Dee valley.
Wigtownshire
did become part of a Viking kingdom. Its ruler was
Echmacarch
Rognvaldsson, described as ‘King of the Rhinns (of Galloway)’when
he died in 1165. Also known as Echmacarch mac Ragnaill, his
Viking-Gaelic kingdom included Whithorn but not eastern Galloway.
Echmacarch had previously been king of Dublin and the Isle of Man as
well.
In
852 an Irish monk described a new group of warriors fighting in
Ireland. These were the Gall-Ghaidheal. Gall, ‘foreigner‘ is the
word the Irish used to mean Vikings. Ghaidheal means
Gaelic-speaking. There are very few other mentions of these
Viking-Gaels in Irish records. The last time they appear is in 1234
when the death of Alan of Galloway ‘ri Gall-Ghaidheal’- king of
the Viking-Gaels - was recorded.
The
Gall part of Galloway also means ‘Viking’. The first
Viking-Gaelic king to rule all of Galloway was Alan’s
great-grandfather Fergus who reigned between 1110 and 1160. Fergus’
kingdom was only the southern part of a Gaelic speaking ‘Greater
Galloway’ which stretched north through Ayrshire into Renfrewshire
and east through Nithsdale into Annandale.
The
first district Fergus ruled was the lower Dee valley, either from
Kirkcudbright or, more likely, from a fortified base on Threave
island. Later Fergus’ kingdom grew westwards and northwards to
include the fertile lands of the Rhinns, Machars and Fleet valley
along with the livestock rearing and deer hunting districts of the
upland districts including Carrick in south Ayrshire.
While
Fergus was building his kingdom, King David I secured eastern
Dumfriesshire for his Scottish kingdom in 1124 by granting Annandale
to a Norman knight- Robert De Brus.
Annandale Charter 1124 |
Fergus
had two sons, Gille-Brigte and Uhtred. After Fergus’ death in 1161,
they ruled jointly until 1174 when Gille-Brigte had his brother
gruesomely mutilated- blinded and castrated. Uhtred died of his
wounds, allowing Gille-brigte to rule alone until his death in 1185.
Gille-Brigte’s
grandson was Niall, Earl of Carrick. He had no male heirs so his
daughter Marjorie inherited Carrick. Marjorie was the mother of
Robert Bruce who became King of Scots in 1306.
Uhtred’s
grandson Alan had no male heirs. His youngest daughter Devorgilla of
Galloway was the mother of John Balliol who became King of Scots in
1292.
When
King Robert I died in 1329, his infant son became King David II. But
in 1332, King John Balliol’s son Edward seized the Scottish throne,
triggering a renewal of the Scottish Wars of Independence. Edward
Balliol died in 1367 and David II in 1371.
Remains of Buittle castle, Balliol stronghold. |
Their
deaths did not quite bring Dumfries and Galloway’s Viking saga to
an end. King David II had been unable to control Galloway’s
Viking-Gaelic clans- the McDowalls, McCullochs and Mclellan’s.
Instead they transferred their loyalty to Archibald the Grim who
revived Fergus’ kingdom as a new, Douglas, Lordship of Galloway.
This
new lordship survived until 1455 when King James II finally secured
Galloway and its Gaelic inhabitants for the Scottish Crown. By 1560,
when John Knox preached the Reformation to the common people of
Galloway and Nithsdale, he was able to do so in Scots and Bible
English. 700 years of Viking-Gaelic heritage had finally and silently
faded away.
Lands taken by James II in 1455 from last Lord of Galloway |