Chapter 17: spring/summer 876 AD

The spring of 876 AD started with a momentous discovery for Scott. It was perhaps momentous for him alone in Dalriada, none other recognising at the time what the find meant. The first merchant ship of the year called in at Inveraray, loaded with iron ore and limestone as usual - these being the staple things that Dalriada traded for normally. The captain of the merchantman was put out when Scott explained they would no longer need a supply of iron ore, as this had been a major trade item for him.

The merchantman panicked at the prospect of losing access to Scott's goods and offered just about everything he had on his ship as an alternative to the ore. He brought out furniture and wines but Scott explained they already had goods of a better quality than what was being offered. He offered gold and Scott accepted some in return for salt and some of the steel weapons his smiths were making.

It was clear that the merchantman was still much put out at the loss of his trade. Scott boarded his ship and walked amongst the goods that were stocked there. He pointed to some fabric and suggested he could trade some goods in return for some of it. His eyes lit up as he passed a barrel filled with brown beans. He was sure he knew what they were, but kept the excitement he felt from showing on his face.

"You have nothing of any interest amongst your cargo my friend. It seems you will need to find other goods if you wish to continue trading with us this year."

"But my Lord, surely there is something here that you need?"

"I'm afraid not my friend. I will show you the standard of the goods my craftsmen are making, to be sure, it may be that you will want to trade for my furniture in future for it far outdoes that which you are currently carrying."

"It will be a sore blow to lose access to your goods my Lord, so I will be on the look out for things that you might need."

"Try finding me some bigger horses my friend! In the meantime I see that you have some seeds on board your ship. All know that I am ever on the look out for seeds. Why have you not offered me some of these as you normally do?"

The merchantman sighed. These 'seeds' were in fact coffee beans that he had secured in trade from Ethiopia, but so far he had not found anyone who could stand the bitter taste of the brew they made. He knew of Scott's interest in plants and seeds and thought to offload the barrel to make space in his hold. Scott couldn't believe his luck at getting the coffee beans for nothing!

No sooner had the merchant left than Scott had the barrel carried up to the house and he was using a small mortar and pestle to grind down some of the beans. Gabrain was amused at how excited Scott was and he looked on as his friend ground away.

"Scott why are you so excited by these seeds? And why are you grinding them instead of planting them?"

"Ah Gabrain, what we have here is liquid gold, a great treasure that I have not tasted in some four years, since I came to this time in fact. In my own time business empires have been built on this stuff."

Scott put the ground up coffee into a pot and set it on the range to boil. Gabrain was impressed by the smell that came from the pot and the aroma brought the girls in to see what was happening too. Scott let the pot boil for a few minutes more and then used some linen to help strain some of the liquid into a beaker. He raised the beaker to his lips and drank, letting out a groan of appreciation as the hot, bitter coffee hit his taste buds.

Gabrain and the girls tasted the coffee and screwed their faces up, stumped as to why Scott was so excited about something that to them tasted vile.

"It is a taste that grows on you my friends, believe me. Here, try it with some milk added."

They accepted that the taste was slightly better with milk but couldn't believe that they would ever develop a liking for it.

Scott and Gabrain surveyed the land between Loch Awe and Loch Lomond, looking for ways to strengthen their defences against possible attack. They recognised that there was just too much land to cover, too many approaches that an enemy host could take. Scott suggested that they had to re-think their approach. If they couldn't build effective static defences then they had to develop better mobile ones. If they could fortify the other side of Loch Awe so that they could use the majority of their forces on this side then that would be a start.

While they were prospecting the land at the head of Loch Lomond a messenger arrived from Murdoch with startling news. It seemed that Constantine and his forces had been badly beaten by a massive Viking host as they had been retiring northwards the previous autumn. A mighty battle had been fought around Dollar and the High King had been routed, many men killed, thousands it was said. The Vikings apparently had switched their attentions from Murdoch's Fife and had gone looking for easier pickings.

Scott and Gabrain discussed what this might mean for their own position. If the High King had been seriously weakened and now had a significant threat from the Danes to deal with, would that mean they were safe from assault meantime? Both agreed that they couldn't plan on the basis that Constantine would not return this year, they needed to make sure they were ready for anything.

Scott had been thinking about infantry formations and had discussed two of these with Gabrain previously. He remembered the Greek phalanx and the later schiltrom as being formations that had had some success. The phalanx was the weaker he thought because it could be relatively easily assaulted from the sides and rear by a more mobile force. Schiltroms on the other hand were regarded as being too static to be used as an attacking force; rather they were a defensive formation, effective against cavalry. But he recalled that Robert the Bruce had turned this on its head and had used schiltroms offensively to good effect.

Now that they had a rich source of iron within the Kingdom, Scott set his craftsmen to making large numbers of shields that would cover the whole body. He also ordered many thousands of spears to be manufactured. They argued over the optimum size for a schiltrom, Scott keen to keep them small and fast moving, Gabrain insisting that there needed to be a minimum number else the formation would be overrun quickly. The backwards and forwards debate settled on a square of men, three deep and ten to each side. So, a total of one hundred and twenty men per schiltrom. The front ranks would lock their shields together while those behind would use their spears to engage the enemy.

Scott and Gabrain now split up and rode throughout Dalriada to set these plans in motion and ensure that men were equipped and drilled in the new tactics. Gabrain headed east for his old lordship of Cowall and Bute to meet up with Colmgil and Scott headed south for Knapdale and Kintyre to get Lachlan and his men on board.

Scott stopped off at Inveraray on his way to Aird Driseig to pick up a number of things. He secured one of the pigeons from the dovecote in a small wicker basket and discussed with Hella who her brightest prospects were for becoming teachers in other settlements. He met with several older girls and agreed to take one of them with him to begin educating the Knapdale children.

Then it was off southwards to Knapdale. His arrival at Aird Driseig was a bittersweet moment. He was delighted to see his good friend Lachlan once more but his memories of the camp, of Kirsty and little Tina, swamped him from the moment he set eyes on it. He felt uncomfortable just being there and accordingly he conducted his business with Lachlan quickly so that he could leave.

Scott wrote a short note to Hella and carefully tied it to the leg of the Inveraray pigeon, letting the bird fly and hoping that this would work. Lachlan enquired what he was doing and he explained, underlining the fact that it was far from certain the bird would find its way back to the Inveraray dovecote. Lachlan laughed at first but then sobered as he realised the potential of much quicker communications. He found himself hoping that Scott's latest idea would work too.

Lachlan was impressed with the plans for the new infantry formations and immediately set his own craftsmen to making the necessary shields and spears. He assured Scott that he would have men practising as soon as the first gear was ready. He also agreed to set up a school and see to it that the children began their education.

Scott didn't travel anywhere these days without his trusty billycan and a sack of ground coffee. Surprisingly, Lachlan was the first person in this time that liked the brew from the first taste and the friends enjoyed a drink as Scott brought Lachlan up to date with everything that was going on. For his part, Lachlan updated Scott on the numbers of men he thought he now had available and also on how well his horse breeding programme was coming along. He suggested he would be able to send one hundred and fifty additional horses to Scott for his use.

Scott was pleased to see that Lachlan had been using concrete to fortify the camp and there was also a signalling tower, which suggested he had set up his own chain of defences throughout Knapdale and Kintyre.

The continued warmth of the people of Aird Driseig towards Scott was tangible and he regretted the sad feelings the camp stirred in him, as he would have liked to spend more time with them. Before he left to ride north, Lachlan introduced him to a pretty woman by the name of Diane.

"Scott this is Diane, we plan to wed in the near future, as you can see, she already carries our child."

Scott hugged Diane and congratulated them both, pleased that his friend had found his mate and that they had already been blessed with a child. He asked what the plans were and promised that he and Gabrain would certainly attend the wedding ceremony, the girls too wouldn't be kept away.

He stopped off at Kilmelford on his way north, making sure that his lieutenants here were overseeing the manufacture of arms and the drilling of men in the new schiltrom formation. He also called in at his coastal defence sites, arriving at Easdale in time to see a fleet of twelve Viking longships heading south along the coast. The Danes were only a few hundred yards away from the camp but made no move to challenge them and Scott wondered where they were headed.

As he rode into Oban/Dun Ollaigh he spotted two young boys creeping slowly through the tough grass that grew just above the beach. While he watched them they both rose and whirled slings above their heads, casting stones at a little group of ducks at the water's edge. One of them looked to have been successful if the cloud of feathers that went up was anything to go by and Scott smiled as they both ran to pick up their kill, no doubt arguing as to whose stone had been the accurate one.

Scott had only ridden a few yards further on when the boy's weapons brought something to mind - catapults! He knew large catapults or trebuchet had been used in warfare, mostly as siege machines he thought. The Viking longships he had just watched could easily have been in range of a trebuchet though and he wondered if there was something in this. Even using such machines against massed infantry would surely have a marked impact? If he used concrete blocks as ammunition he could have a consistent load and perhaps would be able to calibrate the trebuchet so that it was more accurate than the original users had managed?

From memory the design of these things was fairly crude. If he remembered correctly a trebuchet was basically a lever mounted on an axle. The axle was positioned so that there was a long arm and a short arm to the lever. The short arm had a weight attached to it and the long arm a sling. When the short arm was raised and then dropped, the pendulum motion swung the long arm forward, catapulting whatever was in the sling forward. He recalled that the dead bodies of men and animals had been fired into cities that were under siege in the hope of starting an outbreak of sickness. He supposed these were the first examples of biological warfare.

He had a growing supply of lead and that could be used as the weight on the short lever, but thought he would try stone first - metal was after all a valuable commodity. Scott was so excited by where this idea was going that he made straight for the Oban craftsmen rather than calling on Dougall, his steward here.

Word had obviously reached the Oban smiths because shield and spear production were in full flow. Scott gathered some of the woodworkers together and sketched out his idea for a trebuchet for them on a piece of paper. They grasped the concept immediately but were dubious as to how useful such a machine would be. He encouraged them to build him one quickly and he would demonstrate it for them. He called on his builders and asked them to make up a number of concrete blocks, he opted for a size about twice that of a human head and left them to cut the shuttering and pour the concrete.

Having set this latest plan in motion he now called on Dougall and was satisfied that his orders with regard to the development of schiltroms was well in hand. The spring planting was over with and plenty of men were available for training. He also urged Dougall to have the builders put up a school hall and he would send him a teacher so that the children here could start their education.

Dougall informed him that a messenger had appeared at Oban looking for Scott some days before. He searched for a scrap of paper and handed it over. Scott grinned as he saw it was a note from Hella confirming the arrival at Inveraray of his carrier pigeon. Scott asked Dougall to establish a dovecote here at the Oban camp and sent word to Lachlan and Colmgil to do likewise at Aird Driseig and in Cowall. He would need to make sure that Cowall was sent someone who could read and write so that the new communication system would work.