BRECHIN: SNAPSHOTS FROM THE PAST
BRECHIN: ANCIENT CAPITAL?

Little is known about the Picts (Picti) who were so designated by the Romans, according to a writer in the third century A.D., from their practice of painting or, rather, tattooing their bodies. Possibly calling themselves Priteni (i.e. the people of designs), they probably included at least two tribes with sub-tribal groups organised into a kingdom or kingdoms which came under threat not just from the Romans but from the Scots, Angles and Vikings. These external threats helped to unify the Picts and it seems likely that they had formed a single kingdom under Brude mac Bile by the seventh century.

There is no evidence to suggest Brechin was ever the capital of Pictland but that it was a centre of considerable importance seems undeniable. Throughout Strathmore there are many indications showing that the area was one of the most populous within the land of the Picts and it also appears that Angus (including the Mearns) was a province under the rule of a Mormaer (i.e. possibly king's deputy or even sub-king.) It seems likely that Brechin was the religious/cultural, if not the regal, centre for at least the province of Angus and probably had wider importance. When, in the tenth century, by which time the Picts had merged with the Scots, King Kenneth II dedicated the town to God he referred to it as a 'great city'.

© Copyright Brian Mitchell 2000