A personal note to add to the Vikings in the Northern Isles. 35 years ago I worked on an oil terminal in Orkney. At the time the Scots Nats were on a bit if a roll but hadn't quite achieved what they have now. Nevertheless the Orcadians were adamant that if it came to a vote for Independence they'd prefer to be governed from Oslo first, London second and Edinburgh last! Up Helya in Shetland is of course a relatively recent celebration of their Viking roots. Regards Edward R Paxton Sent from my iPhone > On 12 Mar 2014, at 07:45, "Mark Sutherland-Fisher \(HFH\)" <[email protected]> wrote: > > Morning all, > Anyone who has studied Scottish history should know that from the 8th century until the 12th century the Vikings were the single biggest group of invaders of the Northern Isles and Hebrides and indeed right down into Ireland. They had their parliament in Dingwall and in recent years its location under the Earl of Cromartie's memorial in the Cromartie car park has been confirmed by archaeological studies. Orkney was the seat of the Viking Earls who dominated the northern section of Scotland until they were expelled by the likes of my ancestor Freskyn of Moravia in the early 12th century whose Motte and Bailey castle still stands just outside Lossiemouth on the south side of the Moray Firth. His descendants took our family name from the Viking name for that area to the west of the Moray Firth Sudrland which became Sutherland. > > The very fabric of Scotland was determined by the influence of the Vikings. Malcolm III Canmore defeated his cousin Macbeth and then had to get rid of his Viking wife Ingebjorg in order to marry Margaret Atheling, now known as St Margaret. The sons of this marriage including David I invited their Flemish cousins like Freskyn and the ancestors of the Frasers, Setons, Cummings, Douglases etc to come up to Scotland and in return for vast lands in the north and east of Scotland, expel or suppress the Viking descendants. Even into the 13th century it was the death of the little Maid of Norway, the Viking granddaughter of Alexander III which led to the scramble for the Scottish throne and ultimately the invasion by Edward I of England and the Wars of Independence won by The Bruce and his supporters including his brothers-in-law the Earls of Ross and Sutherland. > Cheers > Mark > > -----Original Message----- > From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Maisie Egger > Sent: 12 March 2014 03:40 > To: [email protected] > Subject: [Lanark] Vikings in Scotland > > http://www.scotsman.com/lifestyle/heritage/scale-of-viking-ancestry-uncovered-1-3334618 > > There goes another one of my suppositions as I thought Yorkshire, England had more Viking influence than other part of the British Isles. I’m still working on a possibility that someone from Yorkshire could possibly be my great-great-great-great grandfather (1712) whose surname may have been Danish. > > Should I blame the schools where a lot of the emphasis was taught on Viking incursions in England, the Danelaw, Durham, Lindisfarne, etc., but not much at all about the Viking influence in Scotland? > > On the timeline the Viking influence in Scotland doesn’t even get a look-in, all in England: However, a bone: > > “””See also: Genetic history of the British Isles and Scandinavian migration to the United Kingdom > > > In 2000 the BBC commissioned a genetic survey of the British Isles by a team from University College London led by Professor David Goldstein for its > > programme 'Blood of the Vikings'. It concluded that Norse invaders settled sporadically throughout the British Isles with a particular concentration in certain > > areas, such as Orkney and Shetland. > > In this finding, the Vikings refers to Norwegian Vikings only, as the study did not set out to genetically distinguish > > descendants of Danish Vikings from descendants of Anglo-Saxon settlers. That was decided on the basis that the latter two groups originated from areas that overlap each other on the continental North Sea coast (ranging from the Jutland peninsula to Belgium), and were therefore deemed inconvenient or difficult to genetically distinguish....””” > > > The Central Belt (Lanarkshire) has been a British Isles hodge-podge of peoples “forever,” with many Irish changing the profile of Glasgow in the mid-1800s and on, as an example. Now with the EU, who is to say who is what (or who) a few generations hence. In my own tree it was very simple to find my forebears in the north of England, Ireland (north and south) and predominantly in Southwest Scotland and the Central Belt. I have less than a handful of “hielan’ blood” with Mac in front of their names. Most settled as Lowlanders. > > More to chew on, but I am not touching DNA as my brain rebels! > > Maisie > > ------------------------------- > > WHEN REPLYING to a post please remember to snip most of the earlier message. 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