This blog archive is a memorial to content originally curated on the main Ryan Setliff Online page under the Celtophile section from 2020 through December 16th, 2021; it captures the culture, life, and history of the ancient Celts of the British Isles (i.e., England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales) as well as continental Europe:
A new power emerged in the wild north of Britain after the Roman withdrawal in the Fifth Century AD. It’s name was Dál Riata and it occupied the many islands and archipelagos on both sides of the wild sea between Ireland and Scotland. For a time during the late Sixth and early Seventh Centuries this sea kingdom prospered under the rule of it’s king, Áedán mac Gabráin, who sent his war fleets and trading vessels far and wide throughout the waterways of Northern Britain. Eventually over the centuries the Gaelic inhabitants of Dál Riata merged to a certain extent with the neighboring Picts to eventually develop into the Kingdom of Scotland
The early Scots came first from Ireland and established an early kingdom on the western seaboard of Alba, known as the Sea Kingdom of Dál Riata.
“The Celts living in the middle of Europe were the fearsome opponents of the Greeks and Romans and in c. 390 B.C. they actually besieged Rome. The classical writers have much to say about their warlike activities but where did they come from? Until recently it used to be thought that they emerged in Eastern France and Southern Germany and spread westwards to Spain, Brittany, Britain and Ireland taking their distinctive language with them which survives today as Breton, Welsh, Gaelic and Irish. But recent work is suggesting that the Celtic language may have developed in the Atlantic zone of Europe at a very early date, and DNA studies offer some support to this. So who were the Celts? We will explore the evidence and try to offer an answer.”
Author, historian and researcher Barry Cunliffe discusses his new book Britain Begins and the new ideas on the origins of the Celts. His new book covers the early history of the British Isles, a period of nearly 10,000 years – from the time the first men settled while glaciers receded all the way to the Northern Conquest.