- The Early Medieval period saw the arrival of Christianity within the region, brought by Christian missionaries active throughout western Britain during the 5th century AD. A number of sites have been linked with Early Christian worship, with Whithorn in particular playing an important role. One of the earliest pieces of evidence for Christian worship in the British Isles has been found here (Ralegh Radford, 1962-3, 103). This comprises an inscribed stone commemorating the death of an individual named Latinus and his daughter, thought to date to around AD 450. This is roughly contemporary with the life of St Ninian, the early medieval saint who is associated with the earliest phase of occupation and worship at Whithorn, the site he founded, which is referred to as the ‘Candida Casa’ or ’White House’ in the literary sources.
- Whithorn became the site of a monastery, where a community of monks and lay people lived a life devoted to prayer and contemplation, set apart from the secular world. Excavations at the site in 1984 revealed evidence for a large timber church, a clay-walled burial chapel and a children’s graveyard (Hill 1992). Beyond the boundaries of the monastery, other sites were established across the wider area where Christian services could be held for members of the local secular community (ibid.,106). The same sites might also be used for the placing of the dead within hallowed ground.
- Initially, such places would have been marked by sculptured crosses or inscribed crosses, and the presence of early carved stones from sites like Kirkmadrine is often an indicator of this early Christian activity. Later, church or chapel buildings were placed there. Originally, church buildings would have been fashioned from timber, but at a later date, they were built from stone. This has been linked with a Northumbrian desire to align with the Roman church following the Synod of Whitby of AD 664 (Foster 2011). The 8th century church at Whithorn is an exception, for it represents an example of a ‘complex and sophisticated’ timber church (Foster 2011, 8). Perhaps this use of timber constructions reflects a deliberate local desire to show allegiance to the Celtic church, but this is by no means certain.
- The sites of these Early Medieval churches were reused in the succeeding Medieval period for siting parish churches. The presence of early sculptured or inscribed stones can indicate that a medieval church site has particular longevity, having potential origins at a much earlier date. The carved stones from Kirkmadrine, for example, would suggest such early origins. In other cases, the early site appears to have fallen out of regular use, like the examples from Barhobble, Mochrum and Ardwall Island.
- Another early church site in the region is Hoddom, which is located further to the east, in Eastern Dumfriesshire. It has been argued that the two sites derive from different sources. The church at Whithorn, lying to the west in Galloway, shows an Irish influence, as opposed to the relict Roman influence which is evident at Hoddom. This is reflected in the saints who were venerated at the sites, with Ninian associated with Whithorn, and Kentigern at Hoddom. It is also possible that these sites were not contemporary (McCarthy 2002, 368).
- Occasional survivals of contemporary ecclesiastical metalwork suggest that some of the larger and more important foundations were already acquiring costly and exotic items and using them as vessels to display relics, or items for adorning churches, altars or clergy. The fragmentary pectoral cross from the Talnotrie hoard and some of the gold objects from the Balmaghie hoard appear to have derived from ecclesiastical contexts. The Balmaghie hoard included a gold pointer in the form of a bird which would have been used as an aid to reading by a literate cleric. Some of these rich items would have been made of textiles, fragments of which survived, preserved in metal corrosion products at Balmaghie. These included a lined silk pouch which would have been manufactured in North Africa or the Middle East, and some lengths of silk braid, one of which incorporated gold thread (Rogers 2019). All of these would have contributed to the aura of splendour and mystery which accompanied early Christian worship. A more modest item was a grinding bowl or mortaria from Whithorn, marked with a cross and made from sandstone. This would have been used for grinding the flour which was made into the sacred Host consumed during the Mass.
- Although Christianity became the accepted religion for several cultural groups, religious affiliation might be displayed in different ways. One variation has been identified by Alice Blackwell amongst the Picts. The animal figures which adorn the Hunterston Brooch may not, on the face of it, appear consistent with Christian worship, but Blackwell has presented a detailed argument that they do in fact represent Christian iconography. She argues that the placing of two animal figures facing one another across a gap, as seen in the terminals of the Hunterston Brooch, may be an expression of religious iconography. She points out that Pictish sculpture does not depict Christ as a human figure but instead represents Him as a cross or a lozenge. A space between two opposed animals may operate in a similar fashion. The latter expression might be a physical embodiment of an assertion contained in the Old Testament Canticle of Habakkuk – that Christ will be recognised between two living things (Blackwell 2011, 231). In essence, then, Christ can be seen as ‘closing the gap’ between the terminals of the brooch. By contrast, Anglo-Saxon and Irish sculpture does represent Christ as a human figure, which makes the origins of the Hunterston brooch and its patronage all the more interesting, considering it appears to combine Irish and Anglian elements and craft techniques in its design and execution.
- A more consistent pattern across the various cultural groups that adhered to Christianity at this time can be found in burial practice. Bodies tend to be laid out in a supine position on an east-west alignment, with no grave goods and within slab-built long cists set into the ground. However, there is some degree of variation apparent. One of the best excavated examples in the region to date was found at Mountfode, Ardrossan. Here 60 graves were identified, featuring bodies laid variously in long cists, partial cists and simple pit-dug graves. The earliest graves were laid out formally, but later additions became more haphazard, with orientation varying, though most were NW-SE or WNW-ESE.
- A similar number of graves were identified at Camp Hill, Trohoughton. In this instance, the burial ground occupied an area inside the ramparts of an earlier Iron Age hillfort (Simpson and Scott-Elliot 1962-3). Perhaps the community who buried their dead here deliberately selected this site because they viewed it as having ancestral links. Burial grounds have also been excavated at Whithorn and Ardwall Island, but there has recently been progress in identifying further potential sites. Sometimes these graves appear to be associated with square enclosures. Possible contenders include Burnswark (which revealed five E-W oriented pits within a square enclosure in the fortlet, and other examples at Airds Quarry, Fox Plantation and Terally. Another possible example has been identified by RCAHMS on aerial photographs at Kirk Hill, South Ayrshire (Hatherley 2009).
- Most archaeological evidence suggests that Christianity was adopted amongst most of the communities who lived and settled in South West Scotland, including those of native British, Pictish, Irish and Anglian cultural affinity. Evidence for pagan practices still persisted amongst the Norse population, however, at least during the beginning of the period. Several Viking boat burials have been recorded from the region, particularly on Arran, where two burials are noted from the Lamlash area, one from Kingscross and the other from Millhill. The burial rite often used for prominent Norse warriors and seafarers was to be cremated aboard a ship along with a sword (Balfour 1908-9) and other items. The Kingscross burial revealed evidence of textiles and a decorated piece of whale bone of unknown purpose. Other items, including some made of copper alloy, were present, but they had not survived the cremation process and could not be identified. The lost Viking burial at Millhill produced a war-damaged shield boss, and it is possible that other isolated finds of Norse weaponry, including swords, war axes and shield bosses, may mark the sites of Norse burials which have no longer survived.
- Other forms of Viking burial may also have been practised in the region. Shane McLeod’s 2014 re-interpretation of a small hoard of 9th to 10th century AD Viking-age metalwork from Carronbridge proposed that the group – which comprised a sword, a penannular brooch and a sickle – derived from a disturbed Viking-age burial. The metalwork was found close to an earlier monument – a penannular enclosure, located close to the line of a Roman road and overlooking a major river. McLeod argued that the character of the location, coupled with the reuse of an earlier monument, was entirely consistent with Viking funerary practice (McLeod 2014).