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Orkney and Shetland were superficially quite different. Katrine was common in Norway but rare in
Orkney and Shetland, and the same was true for Tara. But when we looked more carefully at the
detailed sequences, the matches leapt out. Within each of the seven major clans, and the minor ones
too, the similarities in detailed sequence were remarkable. I had initially expected to find hardly
any Scandinavian mitochondrial DNA in either Orkney or Shetland. I had imagined that the Viking
reputation for rape, pillage and general destruction recalled in Up Helly Aa, in atmosphere if not in
fact, would have had the expected genetic consequence – kill the men and keep the women. When it
came to permanent settlement, these same women, I had expected, would have become the wives of
Viking men. That is the usual pattern of conquest and settlement that I have seen many times
throughout the world. It is all too obvious in the genetic consequences of the European colonization
of Polynesia and South America, where European Y-chromosomes are extremely common, while
European mDNA is virtually unknown. This is a record of great success for the incoming Y-
chromosomes at the expense of the indigenous, but with no effect at all on the aboriginal
mitochondrial DNA. Orkney and Shetland had all the right ingredients, but the genetics said
otherwise. Amazingly, there was as much Norse mitochondrial DNA in the Northern Isles as there
were Norse Y-chromosomes. This could mean only one thing – anathema to the Jarls for the day of
Up Helly Aa and their retinue of axe-wielding guizers. The Viking settlement of Orkney and
Shetland had been peaceful! The Scandinavians had brought their women with them.
The 60 per cent of Orcadians and Shetlanders who do not have a Viking genetic ancestry are
most likely to be the descendants of the indigenous Picts. However, there is a proviso. After the
islands were eventually ceded to Scotland in the fifteenth century there was a substantial
immigration of Scots, which would have diluted the genes of the islanders, whether of Viking or
Pictish ancestry. Since we had been successful in identifying Viking genes, both male and female,
the next question was whether we could do the same for the Picts, and for that we must head south
to the heart of Pictland.
Close by the small town of Dunkeld, a few miles north of Perth on the banks of the River Tay, is
the site of the Abbey of Scone. It was here that Kenneth MacAlpin was crowned as the first king of
a united Scotland in 843. The area around Dunkeld was the central stronghold of the Pictish kings
and Kenneth, a Gael from the west, deliberately chose Scone for his coronation to symbolize the
unity between Pict and Celt which his reign proclaimed.
Beneath the coronation throne lay Lia Fail, the Stone of Destiny, a rectangular block of
sandstone. It is said that Lia Fail could talk and that it spoke the name of the next king. The Stone
itself has a mythical history linking it to Egypt, Spain and Ireland, reminiscent of the Irish origin
myths of Mil. However, geologists who have examined the Stone say it comes from the
neighbourhood of Scone itself. But there is an explanation for that. The kings of Scotland continued
to be crowned above the Stone of Destiny until 1296 when Edward I, always aware of the power
of symbolism, carried off the Stone and installed it in Westminster Abbey. But, according to the
legend, he was duped. Monks from the abbey, warned of the approach of Edward and his army, hid
Lia Fail nearby and replaced it with a slab of local sandstone. It was this replica which Edward
took back to England while the real Stone lies hidden somewhere close by.
This neatly explains the geological similarity of the Stone to local rocks, and also why there
continued to be a long succession of Scottish kings even when the Stone was lying in England. It
could hardly be expected to speak the name of the next king of Scotland if it was installed in