The Picts and their Brochs
islands, either as an independent people, prior to the Norse invasion, or accompanying the Norse warriors at a later date.
But to return to the Picts. Whoever they were, they are gone, leaving nothing behind them but the numerous brochs, burial mounds, and standing stones; and as we gaze on these mouldering remains of a byegone age, we can only soliloquise in the words of the poet:
“Once in the flight of ages past
There lived a man, and who was he?
Unknown the region of his birth,
The land in which he died unknown.
His name has perished from the earth,
This truth survives alone:
That joy and grief, and hope and fear,
Alternate triumphed in his breast;
His bliss and woe—
A smile—a tear—
Oblivion hides the rest.”
The Picts probably occupied the islands for a thousand years. They have been a numerous, industrious, and intelligent
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