02 March 2024

The Last Days of Fortriu: Portmahomack in the Viking Age

Talk by Adrián Maldonado

Organsied by Tarbat Discovery Centre. Venue: Carnegie Hall, Portmahomack, IV20 1YA. For tickets, click here

The archaeological excavations at Portmahomack which ran from 1996-2007 revealed what is now the best-known Pictish monastery. It was a thriving workshop, creating sacred metalwork, masterpieces of stone sculpture, and famously, the vellum (calfskin) used as parchment for illuminated manuscripts. This means the site was probably incredibly wealthy. Unfortunately, this made it a target for Viking raids. The monastery at Portmahomack has some of the most convincing evidence for a Viking raid, dated to the early ninth century. The site suffered a catastrophic fire, stone crosses were seemingly smashed and at least one skeleton showed evidence for a lethal blade wound to the head. But it was not the end of the settlement. The workshops were rebuilt, with the craftspeople brought back “under new masters”. Now instead of creating sacred objects for the church, they were creating jewellery and other objects for trade. Adrián Maldonado has recently carried out a new study of the Viking-age collections of National Museums Scotland and can now put this incredible assemblage into its historical context. Who were these ‘new masters’? How do the Viking raids fit with the end of the Pictish kingdom of Fortriu? And was this really the end for the Christian site at Portmahomack?