Imagine a grove, a clear space – almost a meadow. Ringed by
trees – these are deciduous European trees – oak, ash, elm, birch and beech
among others.
This is the space that people began to gather to celebrate
and worship and to hear judgements pronounced and grievances voiced.
Their name is nemeton – possibly based on the Sanskrit
nem-os ‘heaven’ or nem ‘sky’ and meaning sacred, noble and sacred place.
(Watson 1926, O’hOgain 1999, Barrow 1984 and so on).
In the north of Britain, in the older territorial boundaries
of ancient Pictland the placename has had a stronger survival than anywhere
else in the old Celtic lands.
Below you will find a summarised gazetteer of the sites that
due to their placename derivations as well as archaeological, historical and
folkloric data can be reasonably assumed to be the nemeta of the Pictish
people.
Well not quite as I'm still doing that bit whilst I figure out the fancy uploading stuff...
Kris Erskine is heading up this new and exciting part of the Sacred Sites pages. You can get in touch with her as the
Pictish Nemeta Coordinator.
