Maritime Connections: Landscape and Lordship along the Gaelic Atlantic Seaboard of Scotland and the North of Ireland during the Middle Ages

Abstract

Throughout the Middle Ages, parts of the west of Scotland and the Southern Hebrides had close cultural and political links with north Ulster. These links were the result of a complex history of communication and movement that took place over millennia. By the early medieval period, a series of historiographies emerged among various groupings across the region that were used to justify lineages and support territorial ambition. These historiographies were dominated by the politicized construction of Irish-origin myths. Most actual movement or migration originated in Scotland, dominated in particular during the later Middle Ages by fighting men. The region never attained political unity, but this maritime province contained elements of shared cultural traditions and belief systems. These shared elements, however, were not a singular conformist set of traditions, but instead featured variations in architecture, material culture, and landscape usage.