Early English Settlement of Orkney and Shetland

Before the end of the Roman Empire, even before the English had begun their migration from Continental Europe to the land that would come to be called England, the English were to be found living in Orkney and Shetland.

Classical and Mediaeval historians state that there was English presence in both Orkney and Shetland from at least the fourth century AD, therefore around a century before the English began their migration from the Continent to England. Their statements have been variously ignored, or dismissed as mistaken. They do not fit the familiar school-book view of an English migration from the Continent to England, starting around a century later in 449AD with the landing of the brothers Hengist and Horsa in Kent.

This book looks again at the early settlements of the islands, and at the early historians’ claims that the Early English were in Orkney and Shetland. It suggests that these statements are persuasive and should not be disregarded, but that in themselves they fall short of proof. Classical and Mediaeval historians did make mistakes, and possibly their statements that the English were present in Orkney and Shetland are within this category of scholar error. Most writers about Orkney and Shetland today implicitly take this view, for they simply ignore the Early English presence in the islands.