The Picts

Very little is known about the Scottish people in prehistoric times as they did not write books and kept no historical records. What we do know is that the emergence of the Picts coincides with the arrival of the Romans in history. What the Picts were doing before the arrival of the Romans, or where they originally came from, no one knows. For centuries they raised families and standing stones, kept themselves quiet, and enjoyed the rivers, lochs and glens of Scotland.

Over the years while visiting brochs, I've had a few thoughts about them. When you spend time around the Picts and their brochs, sometimes it's easy to envision life with them and understand why they did things, but at other times it isn't. As I've documented each broch here on the website, I've often written my thoughts and musings on the broch pages. Some of my musings are probably not worth reading, but perhaps some of them are. Enjoy the journey. As for me, I now believe the Picts were European refugees, possibly even Israelites escaping the Roman government. Scotland must have been like the promised land for them, another land of milk and honey, salmon jumping everywhere, the whole country one huge natural forest, the seas full of fish, no councils, no government, no state schools, no bureaucrats, no police, no legal system, no banks, no taxes, and they could beat paedophiles to death with iron bars and there was no government or police to stop them. Sounds like paradise to me.

Whatever they were doing, everything changed with the arrival of the Romans. It is clear that the formation of a Pictish nation that united the Highlanders was due to the arrival of the Romans when they landed in England in 55 BC. That the emergence of brochs in such vast numbers is associated with this period of Roman influence in Scotland is clearly no coincidence.