The Highlanders of Scotland - Clan Strachan Society

58 THE HIGHLANDERS [part i
CHAPTER V.
General History of the Highlands from the first Norwegian
Invasion of that District to the Accession of Malcolm
Kenmore, and to the Termination of the Norwegian
Kingdom of the Highlands and Islands.
The preceding portion of this work has been devoted to a
critical examination of the fragments which remain of the early
history of Scotland, by which we have been brought to the
conclusion, that the Highlanders of Scotland are the descendants
of the northern Picts ; and in the course of that examination, a
view has been given of the leading facts of their history, down
to the end of the ninth centur\-. The state of the Highlanders
at that period was very different indeed from what it w^as in the
thirteenth century, when the Highland clans first make their
appearance in their modern shape. In the ninth centur\' we
find them in possession of the whole of the north of Scotland,
with the exception of the districts of Fife, Strathern, Angus^
and Mearns, while in the thirteenth century they were entirely
confined to the mountainous part of the country, and the eastern
districts were occupied by a people of Teutonic origin, and
speaking a German language. The causes of this change in
the population are to be found in the events of Scottish history
during the tenth and eleventh centuries ; it will therefore be
necessary, before proceeding with the history of the Highland
clans, to give a rapid sketch of these events, in so far as they
affected the state of the Highlands.
The limits of this w^ork must of necessity render that sketch
as concise as possible ; but
it will be proper to premise, that
the history contained in the following chapters will be
found altogether different from that which has generally been
received ; which arises from the simple fact, that instead of
following the monkish writers, who have given birth to the