The House of MacAlpin

Dark Age Scotland

Dark age Scotland was occupied by a number of races. The Picts, the aboriginal inhabitants of the country, occupied the north-east of Scotland, they were a short race of Celtic stock and were reported to have arrived in Britain from Europe during the Celtic migrations in the first millennium B.C. The Scots, who were Gaelic Celts, arrived later, they crossed the sea from Northern Ireland in the third and fourth centuries A.D. taking over the area of the West Highlands, which they termed Dalraida.

The Britons of Strathclyde, another Celtic race, known as Brythonic Celts, controlled the south-west from the Clyde to the Solway and into Cumbria. To this melting pot was added the Vikings, of Norway and Denmark, originally raiders who became settlers, who largely occupied the islands of Shetland and Orkney and lastly the Angles, who came north across the border from England to inhabit the Scottish lowlands.

The MacAlpin dynasty, which ruled Scotland throughout the Dark Ages, united the warring races of Picts and Scots as one nation. Early Scottish Kings were appointed by the Celtic system of tanistry, a tanist or tanaise (literally the expected one) the successor to the King, was not neccesarily his eldest son, but was designated from among a group of his kindred, chosen during the life of the reigning King. This pattern of succession can be previously discerned amongst the ancient Kings of Dalraida. The House of MacAlpin continued to occupy the Scottish throne for the next two hundred years, which was marked by bitter dynastic conflict over tanist successors between rival branches of the dynasty.

Monarch		Birth and Reign	Married
Kenneth MacAlpin		b. around 810 son of Alpin mac Echdach r. 843-858
Donald I		c. 812 son of-Kenneth MacAlpin
Constantine I		son of- son of Kenneth MacAlpin, r. 862-877
Aodh		b. before 858 son of- Kenneth MacAlpin, r. 877-878
Giric		b. c 832 possible son of - Dúngal r. 878-889
Donald II		b. 1284 son of- Constantín I r. 899-900
Constantine II		b. before 879 son of- Áodh, King of the Picts r. 900-943
Malcolm I		son of- Donald II r. 943-954
Indulf		son of Constantine II r. 954-962
Dubh		son of- Malcolm I r. 962-967
Colin		son of- Indulf r 967-971
Kenneth II		son of Malcolm I, r. 971-995
Constantine III		son of- Colin r. 995-997
Kenneth III		b. before 967 son of- Dubh r. 997-1005
Malcolm II		son of Kenneth II, r. 1005-1034

Additional Information on the era