Related Research Articles
Columba or Colmcille was an Irish abbot and missionary evangelist credited with spreading Christianity in what is today Scotland at the start of the Hiberno-Scottish mission. He founded the important abbey on Iona, which became a dominant religious and political institution in the region for centuries. He is the patron saint of Derry. He was highly regarded by both the Gaels of Dál Riata and the Picts, and is remembered today as a Catholic saint and one of the Twelve Apostles of Ireland.
The Picts were a group of peoples who lived in what is now northern and eastern Scotland during Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages. Where they lived and what their culture was like can be inferred from early medieval texts and Pictish stones. Their Latin name, Picti, appears in written records from the 3rd to the 10th century. Early medieval sources report the existence of a distinct Pictish language, which today is believed to have been an Insular Celtic language, closely related to the Brittonic spoken by the Britons who lived to the south.
Dál Riata or Dál Riada was a Gaelic kingdom that encompassed the western seaboard of Scotland and the north-eastern corner of Ireland, on each side of the North Channel. At its height in the 6th and 7th centuries, it covered what is now Argyll in Scotland and part of County Antrim in Northern Ireland. After a period of expansion, Dál Riata eventually became associated with the Gaelic Kingdom of Alba.
Áedán mac Gabráin, also written as Aedan, was a king of Dál Riata from c. 574 until c. 609 AD. The kingdom of Dál Riata was situated in modern Argyll and Bute, Scotland, and parts of County Antrim, Ireland. Genealogies record that Áedán was a son of Gabrán mac Domangairt.
The River Ness is a river in Highland, Scotland, UK. It flows from Loch Dochfour, at the northern end of Loch Ness, north-east to the mouth of the Beauly Firth at Inverness, a distance of about 6 miles, with a fall in height of about 16 metres. The river is the origin of the name of Inverness which is from Scottish Gaelic: Inbhir Nis, meaning "Mouth of the Ness".
Ardnamurchan is a 50-square-mile (130-square-kilometre) peninsula in the ward management area of Lochaber, Highland, Scotland, noted for being very unspoiled and undisturbed. Its remoteness is accentuated by the main access route being a single track road for much of its length. The most westerly point of mainland Great Britain, Corrachadh Mòr, is in Ardnamurchan.
A charmstone, charm-stone or charm stone is a stone or mineral artifact of various types associated with various traditional cultures, including those of Scotland and the native cultures of California and the American southwest. Typically they are elongated or cylindrical and have been shaped by grinding or other human activity, and may be perforated and/or grooved. They are thought to have been regarded as having some religious or magical function, including being talismans, amulets or charms.
Bridei I, also known as Bridei, son of Maelchon, was king of the Picts from 554 to 584. Sources are vague or contradictory regarding him, but it is believed that his court was near Loch Ness and that he may have been a Christian. There were contemporaries claiming the title "king of the Picts". He died in the mid-580s, possibly in battle, and was succeeded by Gartnait son of Domelch.
Adomnán or Adamnán of Iona, also known as Eunan, was an abbot of Iona Abbey (r. 679–704), hagiographer, statesman, canon jurist, and saint. He was the author of the Life of Columba, probably written between 697 and 700. This biography is by far the most important surviving work written in early-medieval Scotland, and is a vital source for our knowledge of the Picts, and an insight into the life of Iona and the early-medieval Gaelic monk.
King Bridei III (616/628?–693) was king of the Picts from 672 until 693.
The Cáin Adomnáin, also known as the Lex Innocentium, was promulgated amongst a gathering of Irish, Dál Riatan and Pictish notables at the Synod of Birr in 697. It is named after its initiator Adomnán of Iona, ninth Abbot of Iona after St. Columba. It is called the "Geneva Accords" of the ancient Irish and Europe's human rights treaty, for its protection of women and non-combatants, extending the Law of Patrick, which protected monks, to civilians. The legal symposium at the Synod of Birr was prompted when Adomnáin had an Aisling dream vision wherein his mother excoriated him for not protecting the women and children of Ireland.
Painted pebbles are a class of Early Medieval artifact found in northern Scotland dating from the first millennium CE.
Hinba is an island in Scotland of uncertain location that was the site of a small monastery associated with the Columban church on Iona. Although a number of details are known about the monastery and its early superiors, and various anecdotes dating from the time of Columba of a mystical nature have survived, modern scholars are divided as to its whereabouts. The source of information about the island is Adomnán's late 7th-century Vita Columbae.
The Life of Columba is a hagiography recounting the life of Columba, the founder of Iona Abbey, written a century after Columba's death by Adomnán, one of his successors as Abbot of Iona.
Baithéne mac Brénaind was an Irish monk, one of Saint Columba's followers who accompanied him to Scotland around 563, and was the first successor of the abbacy of Iona. The Annals of Tigernach record his birth in 534, and his death was likely between 596 and 598 according also to the Annals of Ulster. Irish genealogical records indicate him to be the "son of Brendan, son of Fergus, son of Conall Gulban, son of Niall Noígiallach", thus being a member of the Cenél Conaill branch of the Northern Uí Néill, as the abbots of Iona following the death of Columba often were.
Cé was a Pictish territory recorded during the Early Medieval period and located in the area of modern-day Aberdeenshire, Scotland.
Saints and animal/plant life. A number of Christian saints have anecdotes and stories about them in relation to animals or plants. In some cases they appeared to possess miraculous powers to speak with animals.
Cormac Ua Liatháin was a 6th-century Irish saint who is only known from Adomnan of Iona's Vita Columbae.
References
- Adomnan of Iona. Life of St Columba. Penguin Books, 1995