Nechtan Mac Der-Ilei - Legacy

Legacy

It has been suggested that the St Andrews Sarcophagus was commissioned by Óengus to hold Nechtan's remains, although it is more generally supposed that the sarcophagus was for Óengus himself. Nechtan's attachment to Saint Peter may have led later chroniclers, writing in a period when Saint Andrew was of far greater importance, to have emphasised ninth century kings who had supported the cult of Saint Andrew.

A number of later traditions associating earlier Pictish kings named Nechtan with the monastic foundation at Abernethy may have confused them with this Nechtan.

Nechtan's ecclesiastical reforms are seen as having led to closer links between Pictland and Northumbria, with notable results in artistic forms. His expulsion of Ionan clerics, rather than being a submission to Rome and Northumbria, probably marks the coming of age of an independent Pictish church, which nonetheless remained close to Iona and to Ireland. In addition, it speaks to a very considerable degree of royal control over the church in Pictland, which appears to have been contentious in the ninth century.