Dál Riata

Now the invaders and settlers from Scandinavia, the Northmen on the west coast, ravaged the Christian Scots of the west and burned Ionia.

Finally, in 844 to 860, Kenneth MacAlpine of Kintyre, a Scot of Dalriada on the paternal, a Pict on the mother's side, defeated the Picts and obtained their throne.

By Pictish law the crown descended in the maternal line, which probably facilitated the coronation of Kenneth.

To the Scots, and to all Europe, he was a Scot.

The Convention of Drum Kit.

Columba had been eleven years at Iona when Conall, the king of the Scottish Dalriada, died.

He was succeeded by Aidan, his cousin, whose love and veneration for Columcille led him to choose him for his soul's friend, and to beg him to come himself to place the crown upon his head, and to pray that the grace of God might be with him in his governing.

Columba assented to his request, and so it came to pass that the solemn rite of the consecration of a king was performed for the first time in the British Isles.

Aidan was crowned on the famous Stone of Destiny, which was afterwards removed to Scone, and was used as the coronation chair for the kings of Scotland, until Edward I, the hammer of the Scots, carried it away and set it up in Westminster Abbey.

Perhaps it was as well for the peace of mind of the ruthless oppressor that he could not look into the future, and see how the royal line of Scotland would in course of time follow the Stone of Destiny, and crowned once more upon it, rule over the United Kingdom.

For Aidan was the ancestor of Macbeth and Malcolm Canmore, and through the female line of the Bruces and the Stuarts, while many of the old Highland families, such as the Mackenzies, Mackinnons, Mackintoshes, Macgregors, Macleans and Macnabs, count their descent from the Dalriadan kinsmen of Columba.

The little kingdom had become powerful, and the yearly tribute to Ireland was galling to the pride of the Scots.

To the High Neals, the kinsmen of Columba, belonged the whole north-west of Ireland.

The sovereign rule over the entire country was theirs, in the Irish colony of Dalriada, in Caledonia, over the seas, as well as in the mother country of Arran.

They exercised authority over the provincial kings, but an authority that was often hotly contested and stormily maintained at the cost of much bloodshed.

The king was elected from either branch of the great Nile family or clan, the High Niles of the north, to which Columba belonged, or the High Niles of the south, and the two branches were continually at war.

Chapter 8.

The Convention of Drum Kit.

Columba had been eleven years at Iona, when Conall, the king of the Scottish Dalriada, died.

He was succeeded by Aidan, his cousin, whose love and veneration for Colm Kiel led him to choose him for his soul's friend, and to beg him to come himself, to place the crown upon his head, and to pray that the grace of God might be with him in his governing.

Now the invaders and settlers from Scandinavia, the Northmen on the west coast, ravaged the Christian Scots of the West and burned Iona.

Finally, in 844 to 860, Kenneth MacAlpine of Kintyre, a Scot of Dalriada on the paternal, a Pict on the mother's side, defeated the Picts and obtained their throne.

By Pictish law, the crown descended in the maternal line, which probably facilitated the coronation of Kenneth.

To the Scots and to all Europe, he was a Scot.