Celtic Scotland : a history of ancient Alban / by William F. Skene.

  • Skene, W. F. (William Forbes), 1809-1892.
Date:
1886-1890
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Celtic Scotland : a history of ancient Alban / by William F. Skene. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    155/546 (page 129)
    monastic establishment, near which are the remains of two beehive cells.2 It is probable that on' these two islands were founded the two earliest monasteries by Brendan before they were lost to the Scots of Dalriada by the defeat of the year 560, by which event they were probably swept away. In the year 565 Comgall of Bangor, who had come to the assistance of Columba on his first visit to King Brude, erected a monastery at a certain village in the land of Heth, or Tiree, where he is said in his Life to have abode some time; and that too was ruined by the Piets. We are told in his Life that, ‘ one day when Comgall was working in the field, he put his white hood over his garment; and about the same time a number of heathen plunderers from the Piets came to that village to carry away everything that was there, whether man or beast. Accordingly when the heathen robbers came to Comgall, who was labouring in the field, and saw his white hood over his cape, thinking that this white hood was Comgall’s Deity, they were deterred from laying hands on him, for fear of his God. However, they carried off to their ship the brethren of Comgall and all their substance.’ The pirates are of course shipwrecked through the prayers of the Saint, and gave back their plunder; but afterwards Comgall was conducted back to Ireland by a company of holy men.3 This took place during the interval of fourteen years between the defeat of the Dalriads in 560 and their re-establishment in 574 ; and during this period the islands around Iona, which had been occupied by the Scots and from which they were driven by the Piets, seem to have formed a sort of debateable ground with a mixed population of Scots and Piets, who carried on a kind of guerilla warfare with each other; and any Christian establishments which existed among them would form points of attack for the heathen Piets. Thus we 2 For an account of the remains 3 See Dr. Reeves’s Adnmnan, ed. on this island, see p. 97. 1874, App. I. p. 306. VOL. II. I