Mystery solved? The Picts didn't vanish and still walk among us – Scotsman comment

In medieval times, the enigmatic Picts were said to have arrived in Scotland from distant Scythia or Thrace or, maybe, some islands north of Scotland. And then, after centuries of life in Scotland, they suddenly and seemingly almost overnight vanished from the chronicles.

So it’s understandable that, over the years, they developed more than a little sense of mystery and magic in the minds of many. In Robert Louis Stevenson’s 1890 poem, Heather Ale, he tells the story of a Scottish king who “smote the Picts in battle” until he finally confronted the “last of the dwarfish folk” and demanded to know the secret to heather ale, a drink “sweeter far than honey... stronger far than wine”.

However, a new scientific study suggests that the Picts may be more prosaic and, well, ordinary. Using genetic samples from remains in Pictish-era cemeteries at Lundin Links in Fife and Balintore in Easter Ross, the researchers found evidence indicating that the Picts were “local to the British Isles in their origin... and not from large-scale migration, from exotic locations far to the east”.

Furthermore, their descendants managed to survive. It may come as a bit of a surprise that these ‘modern-day Picts’ – or at least populations who are “genetically most similar” to them – are most common in western Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, and Northumbria, but it’s good to know they are still with us and didn’t get wiped out or embark on another epic journey back to Scythia, Thrace or somewhere. And who knows, perhaps someone, somewhere, somehow, has kept alive the long-lost secret to Pictish heather ale...