People
Records from Roman times describe the people of the area as Picts, a Celtic people. Pictish brochs, tall stone towers up to ten meters high and more than 2,000 years old, are found near Glenelg to the south of the loch. The Scots, a tribe of Gaels from Ireland, established the kingdom of Dál Riata in the Hebrides and western Scotland late in the 6th century, and their Gaelic language gradually replaced the earlier Pictish language. Many of the local people speak Gaelic to this day.
In the 7th and 8th centuries the area suffered raids and invasions by Vikings from Norway. From the 9th century until the Treaty of Perth in 1266 CE control of the Hebrides alternated between the kingdoms of Norway and of Alba to the east, and independent Gaelic/Scandinavian rulers such as Ketil Flatnose, Maccus mac Arailt, Godred Crovan and Somerled. The kingdom of Scotland that finally established its authority over the area included many lowlanders who spoke a Northumbrian language akin to English. However, it was only gradually and comparatively recently that Scottish English became more common than Gaelic in the Lochalsh area.
The people of Lochalsh are thus a combination of Pictish and Scottish (Irish) with Norwegian and English elements.
Read more about this topic: Loch Alsh
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