Fearn dates back possibly to the 5th Century when St. Ninian conducted a Mission along the East Coast of ALBA (Pictland) during the period 400 - 432 AD, and from his training centre at Whithorn, missionaries, who always wore white coloured habits, established a Monastery west of Edderton on the road to Ardgay. Whithorn Priory was one of the most holy places in Scotland having been founded by St. Ninian in 397 AD; the first Christian settlement north of Hadrians wall. St Ninian was born in Galloway, and as a young man visited Rome. Saint Ninian first brought christianity to Scotland via the Machars, founding a small church at the Isle of Whithorn from which a medieval cathedral later sprung at Whithorn. Ninian studied under St. Martin of Tours and can lay claim to bringing Christianity to Scotland long before Saint Columba whose church at Iona is often mistakenly credited as the cradle of Scottish Christianity.
Early shrines and sites associated with missionaries or even bishops (St. Kentigern/Mungo of Glasgow) tended to be preserved in the later structure of dioceses (under King Malcolm III, 1055-93 onwards); early associations may account for the extreme irregularity of the Scottish diocesan structure. Many parishes of Dunblane and Dunkeld lay within the boundaries of the other diocese; those of Brechin all lay within a territory covered by St. Andrews without being subordinate to it; Inchcolm Abbey remained a foundation of the bishop of Dunkeld in the Firth of Forth at the centre of St. Andrews' dioecese.
Although there are no high peaks in the MACHARS it is not flat and would best be described as undulating, or rolling. The Machars peninsula is roughly defined by a northern boundary stretching from Newton Stewart to Glenluce, the only other boundary being the sea. The coastline then rises to form dramatic cliffs as it passes the ruins of Cruggleton Castle, dropping a little at Portyerrock Bay and the Isle of Whithorn, and rising again at Burrow Head. In Castle Loch near The Old Place of Mochrum are the remains of several crannogs. Burrow Head (the southernmost tip of the peninsula) is about 15 miles from Point of Ayre on the Isle of Man, and trade links have long existed between the two places.Whithorn (Taigh Mhàrtainn in Gaelic) is a small burgh in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland, about ten miles south of Wigtown. A monastery and diocese of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Northumbria was founded on the site in the 8th century. It was the centre of the revived See of Galloway (or Candida Casa) under the patronage of Fergus, Lord of Galloway and Bishop Gilla Aldan from the 12th century. The collection of early medieval stones is one of the largest in Scotland, and includes the country's earliest surviving Christian memorial, the 5th century inscribed 'Latinus Stone'.
The Machars, as viewed from Torrs Warren with Luce Bay standing between. Saint Ninian first brought christianity to Scotland via the Machars, founding a small church at the Isle of Whithorn from which a medieval cathedral later sprung at Whithorn. Irish and Scottish missionaries (Iro-Scottish, Hiberno-Scottish) were instrumental in the spread of Christianity in Anglo-Saxon England and the Frankish Empire during the 6th and 7th centuries. Hiberno-Scottish monasteries on the continent include the Scots monastery in Regensburg, Vienna, Erfurt and Würzburg. Activity in Europe declined after the death of Columban. Celtic Christianity was re-united with Roman Catholicism after the Synod of Whitby in 664, and from 698 until the reign of Charlemagne in the 770s, the Hiberno-Scottish efforts in the Frankish Empire were continued by the Anglo-Saxon mission. Legends surrounding Iro-Scottish foundations are recorded in a Middle High German.
Arran, a Galwegian island has many mountains in the north and the Isle of Arran (Scots Gaelic: Eilean Arainn) is the largest island in the Firth of Clyde. The south of the island has many raised beaches and tall sea cliffs. The island is sometimes referred to as "Scotland in miniature", as it is divided into "Highland" and "Lowland" areas by the Highland Boundary Fault which runs northeast to southwest across Scotland. Among the Uí Máine dwelt the Sogain, a Cruithin (Pict) tribe, and the Dál naDruithne believed to be Tuatha De Danann Celts. Also-the Kingdom of Connacht. A branch of the O'Briens of Thomond in the county Clare, and Lords of the lsles of Arran, off the coast of Galway. As tradition has it the ancient Manaigh or Monaigh- a sept of the Ulidians of Dal-Araidians or Dál Fiatach, near Moira (Mag Rath), county Down, or in Antrim, alias Monach occupied the area near Lough Erne, giving their name to the modern county of Fermanagh. "Isle Lecale," anciently Magh Inis and Arran- a tribe of the Armens. It was "Cathal's Half of Dál Fiatach". The Cineal nGabrain originally dwelt south of the Cenél Loairn in the island districts of Jura, Bute, and Arran, and the mainland districts of Cowal and Kintyre. They were the chief clan of the Dal Riada.
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Arran has three smaller satellite islands: Holy Isle lies to the east opposite Lamlash, Pladda lies off Arran's south coast, Tiny Hamilton Isle lies just off the Arran shore around 1.2 kilometres north of Holy Isle. Eilean na h-Airde Baine off the south west of Arran at Corriecravie is more of a skerry than an island and, in any case, is connected to Arran at low tide. It is likely that along with Bute, Arran was once the home of a Brythonic speaking people. However, the Gaels spread to the island from their adjacent kingdom of Dál Riata and replaced the older language with their Goidelic tongue. |
In the 5th century, the island was part of the Scots kingdom of Dalriada, which stretched from North Ireland to Perthshire. The Dalriada crossed the North Channel from Ireland to Kintyre in Scotland, eventually establishing a kingdom around Argyll. The title king of Kintyre is used of a number of presumed kings of the Cenél nGabrain. The Islands of Arran formed part of Corcomroe. In the south of Skye we find Kildonans at Arran. The distant cultures point to Skye's involvement in this heroic age of the Gaelic speaking people.
The Holy Isle, Firth of Clyde was where the viking fleet sheltered between Arran and Holy Isle before MacHeth and the Battle of Largs. As the Vikings from Scandinavia expanded around the west coast of Scotland (and on to the eastern seaboard of Ireland) they became established around the end of the 8th century on Bute (and the neighbouring islands of Arran and the Cumbraes; the latter not far from the Scottish mainland. According to legend, there was also a supernatural element to the defeat of Somerled, self-styled King of the South Isles, by Walter Fitzalan, High Steward of Scotland, at Renfrew in the winter of 1164. It is located in the Firth of Clyde off the west coast of central Scotland, inside Lamlash Bay on the larger island of Arran, with a spring said to have healing properties, the hermit cave of 6th Century monk Saint Molaise, and evidence of a 13th Century monastery by the earlier Gaelic name for the island was Eilean Molaise, Molaise's Island. Bruce reappeared in February 1307, for he was set to take his greatest gamble. From the island of Arran in the Firth of Clyde, he crossed to his own earldom of Carrick, in Ayrshire, landing near Turnberry.
In the Gaelic divisions off the coast of Galway which preceded the seventeenth century, most of Leitrim, along with Cavan, was part of the kingdom of Bréifne. In the 9th century, the Scots were supplanted by Norse settlers. They built a new fort at Brodick and gave the settlement its name, which is Norse for 'broad bay'. Sodor is derived from two Norse words meaning "southern isles," so that Sodor and Man means "The Southern Isles and Man." The Keeills were built by the Culdees, or "Servants of God," who never married but lived alone, teaching and ministering to the people. It consisted of the southern islands of Scotland, extending from the Hebrides to Arran, and Man, and it was then placed under the Archbishop of Drontheim in Norway. The Isle of Man is for administrative purposes divided into six sheddings, each of three parishes.