By DAVID STEELE, The [Glasgow] Herald. June 11th, 2001
THE belief that the Scots are descendants of Irish settlers who crossed from Antrim in the sixth century is being dismissed as a myth by an eminent archaeologist.
In a detailed research paper published by Glasgow University yesterday, Ewan Campbell argues the claimed migrations of the Irish into Argyll can be attributed to "a set of elite origin myths, finding no support in archaeological evidence".
For many years Dr Campbell has been concerned that the received truth that Scots kings were descended from Irish invaders was not the truth at all.
He has concluded any migration between the west coast of Scotland and north east Ireland was in the opposite direction to that previously thought.
The doubts were planted in his mind when he took part in a excavation at the royal fort at Dunadd in Argyll in the 1970s. The dig uncovered strong evidence that this was the inauguration site of the early Scottish kings but gave little indication of any Irish influence.
At this time, the kingdom of the Scots - Dalriada, consisting of Argyll and some of the west coast islands - was a centre of civilisation and trade.
Dr Campbell said: "Looking at the site made us wonder, how did it start? It made us look at the original legends. If they were true you would expect to see Irish types of settlements and artefacts. When we looked for evidence of the Irish origin, there was none.
Dr Campbell said of the accepted belief: "This apparently incorrect account was done by medieval spin doctors for political reasons - to further the claims to the Scottish throne of descendants of Kenneth MacAlpine. It was an early example of an Orwellian rewrite of history."
Editor's note: This news account of recent research and a new theory was followed in the next issue of the American magazine Archaeology by an article that re-asserted the standard view - see Scotland's Irish Origins. Probably both pieces of work were being written at the same time, without knowledge of each other.