Late antique Scotland: The earliest Christians in Galloway

Abstract

• This paper will cover the evidence for the arrival of Christianity in south-west Scotland, in particular focusing on new research on Kirkmadrine and Whithorn. It is argued that the missionary model for conversion to Christianity is insufficient, and explores other archaeological evidence for contacts between this region and the late antique west. In doing so we must reconsider our notion of what we think early Christianity looks like, and how it might appear in ways that are not always restricted to a monastery