The Vikings in Scotland

From: VisitScotland.com , Scotland's national Tourist Site:

The Vikings' boat-building and navigational skills and their fearsome reputation as they pillaged and plundered more prosperous lands meant that by the 10th century, they had ravaged Europe and Asia Minor, established a base in Iceland, colonised Greenland and probably landed in North America centuries before Columbus.

In Scotland, the invasions and settlement of Vikings from Scandinavia were one of the country's most formative influences.

When the first arrived in Scotland at the end of the 8th century, the Vikings were only interested in conquest and plunder. In 794, they first attacked Iona, the heart of the Celtic Church, and returned on successive years to loot and pillage. Driven by the over-population of settlements on Norway's west coast, colonisation of the ravaged territories soon followed and before long Norse society and culture had become firmly established in Shetland (Hjaltland), Orkney (Orkneyjar), the Outer Hebrides (Su'ereyar) and Man (M'n). They used these as bases to attack the mainland and to colonise its remoter parts such as Caithness and Galloway.

However, the Viking invaders did not always destroy what they found: archaeological evidence suggests that at Brough on Birsay, the long-houses of the incomers respected the sacred site of a Pictish monastery. Indeed, many of the settlers were later converted to Christianity. The largest Norse settlement so far discovered is at Jarlshof in Shetland and another has been excavated at Udal in North Uist.

Throughout the settled lands, the Vikings established territories known as jarldoms (from which we get 'earldoms'). Though semi-autonomous, each was under the ultimate sovereignty of the kings of Norway. This continued unchanged until the 13th century when, following the Viking defeat at the Battle of Largs in 1263, Norway surrendered control of the islands, Kintyre and Man to Scottish control. Norse control lasted longest in Shetland, which was ruled, directly from Bergen until the 15th century.

Today, the most enduring evidence of the Viking settlement of Scotland can be found in the many Norse place names that can be found throughout the northern isles, the Hebrides and along the western seaboard.

The Vikings in the Shetland Isles:

The influence of the Vikings is, of course, everywhere. The ancient Viking parliament, the Althing, once met near Scalloway and even today, Norse Udal law still plays a role in Shetland life. The Norse influence is also noticeable in the Shetland dialect and on place names and on the last Tuesday of January, Vikings roam the streets of Lerwick at the annual fire festival, Up Helly Aa. This is the world's biggest fire festival and involves a torchlight procession dragging a Viking longship through the streets before setting it alight in spectacular fashion and retiring to the local halls for a night of revelry.