Wherever the Scots came from and to whatever race they belong,
whether Teutonic or Celtic, they certainly appear not to have
been the first settlers in Ireland, and at the time at which they
first appear in authentic history occupied a district in Ireland
corresponding to Connaught, Leinster, and part of Munster. They were
also one of the most powerful of the Irish tribes, seeing that for
many centuries Ireland was, after them, called Scotia or Scotland.
It is usually said that a particular corner in the north-east of
Ireland, about 30 miles in extent, corresponding to the modern
county of Antrim, was the kingdom of the particular band of Scots
who migrated to Scotland; and that it received its name, Dal-Riada
(‘the portion of Riada’), from Carbre-Riada, a leader of the Scots
who conquered this particular part, previously inhabited by Cruithne
or Irish Picts. Robertson,[83] however, considers all this fable
and the kingdom of Dalriada as mythical, Tighernach and the early
Irish annalists never applying the name to any other locality than
British Dalriada. At all events, this particular district was spoken
of by the later chroniclers under the name of Dalriada, there being
thus a Dalriada both in Scotland and Ireland.[84] At the time of the
migration of the Scots from Ireland to Scotland, they were to all
intents and purposes a Celtic race, speaking Trish Gaelic, and had
already been converted to Christianity.
The account of the Scottish migration usually given is, that in the
year 503 A.D.,[85] a new colony of Dalriads or Dalriadic Scots, under
the leadership of Fergus son of Erc, a descendant of Carbre-Riada,
along with his brothers Lorn and Angus, left Ireland and settled
on the western coast of Argyle and the adjacent islands. “The
territories which constituted the petty kingdoms of Dalriada can be
pretty well defined. They were bounded on the south by the Frith of
Clyde, and they were separated on the east from the Pictish kingdom
by the ridge of the great mountain chain called Drumalban. They
consisted of four tribes,--the genus or Cinel Lorn, descended from
Lorn, the elder of the three brothers; the Cinel Gabran and Cinel
Comgall, descended from two sons of Domangart, son of Fergus, the
second of the brothers; and the Cinel Angus, descended from the third
brother, Angus. The Cinel Comgall inhabited the district formerly
called Comgall, now corrupted into Cowall. The Cinel Gabran inhabited
what was called the Airgiallas, or the district of Argyle proper, and
Kintyre. The Cinel Angus inhabited the islands of Islay and Jura, and
the Cinel Lorn, the district of Lorn. Beyond this, on the north, the
districts between Lorn and the promontory of Ardnamurchan, _i.e._,
the island of Mull, the district of Morven, Ardgower, and probably
part of Lochaber, seem to have formed a sort of debatable ground,
the population of which was Pictish, while the Scots had settlements
among them. In the centre of the possessions of the Cinel Gabran, at
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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