From Scythia to Alba: The Painted Queens of the North
By Tiffany McCarter Evans
Administrator, Clans of Scotland DNA Society, Founder of the Loch Lomond Clans DNA Project, Editor of The Lennox Chronicles
Forget Camelot — the real King Arthur may have ruled from the Scottish Highlands, and his queen was buried in a stone-covered grave guarded by beasts.
This isn’t fantasy. It’s archaeology, DNA, and a story 2,000 years in the making — carved into stone by the Picts and echoed in Scotland’s most sacred declaration of freedom.
This article explores the origin of the Pictish elite in Scotland through oral tradition, medieval chronicles, archaeogenetics, and symbol stones. It posits that the Scythian warrior ancestry cited in the Declaration of Arbroath aligns with the historical appearance of the Picti in the late 3rd century AD, potentially linked to haplogroup E-M35. We also trace the legend of Guinevere, reframed as Vanora, a Pictish queen whose downfall and execution may reflect a real political and dynastic shift. The result is a radical rethinking of Scotland’s mythic and maternal foundations.
I. The Myth We Forgot: A Painted Queen in the North
The people of Alba left no books, but they left stone. The Picts—"the Painted Ones"—etched their stories in cryptic symbols, spirals, beasts, and warriors. One stone, Meigle 2, shows a woman surrounded by snarling animals. Christian scholars say she is Daniel. Locals say she is Vanora.
Vanora, they say, was once a queen. Arthur's queen. But she betrayed him for Mordred, or maybe she was just accused. She ruled from Meigle, but when Arthur returned, she was cast down, imprisoned atop Barry Hill, and left to be devoured by wild beasts. Her grave remains today, known as Vanora's Mound.
II. The Declaration of Arbroath & The Scythian Claim
In 1320, Robert the Bruce and Scotland's nobles wrote to Pope John XXII and made a bold claim:
"Our people journeyed from Greater Scythia, through Iberia, and into the west of Europe, settling in Scotland 1,200 years after the Exodus."
New models date the Exodus to 1446 BC. Add 1,200 years: ~246 AD. The Picts emerge in Roman records by 297 AD. Not poetic flourish. A memory.
III. Were the Picts the Sons of Scythia?
Scythians were warrior elites from the Eurasian steppe, known for:
Tattoos
Horse warfare
Elite matrilineal burials
Haplogroups like E-M35, R1a, J2
These align with:
Pictish paint and body art
Hillforts and warbands
Matrilineal succession
Genetic outliers among Highland clans like MacArthur, McCarter, and Colquhoun carrying E-M35, a haplogroup absent in Celtic Gaels but present in ancient Scythian populations.
IV. Kings Through the Mother: The Irish Contract
Early chronicles say the Picts came to Ireland seeking wives. The Irish king agreed under one condition:
"Your sons may be kings, but only through our daughters' blood."
This matrilineal pact formed the dynastic core of the Pictish kingship.
Could your Y-DNA prove you descend from King Arthur’s Scythian bloodline?
Rare Highland E-M35 lines deviate from Gaelic R1b-L21.
Join the Clans of Scotland DNA Society to discover your true ancient lineage.
V. Meigle and the Execution of Vanora
The stone at Meigle doesn’t whisper. It screams. A woman surrounded by beasts. A mound beside it. A tradition passed down for 1,200 years. This wasn’t Daniel. It was punishment.
Maybe Vanora wasn’t Arthur's faithless queen. Maybe she was a queen by right, a matrilineal dynast, executed during a shift to patrilineal control. Her bloodline erased.
The stone doesn’t lie. It shows a woman surrounded by beasts. Some say Daniel. Others say Vanora. But the villagers of Meigle always knew: this wasn’t a parable — it was a punishment.
VI. Arthur in the North
Not all versions of Arthur place him in Camelot. Some place him in:
The Forth-Clyde isthmus
Gododdin territory
Stirling and Meigle
A warlord of the north. And Vanora? A queen not of romance, but of realpolitik. Her story wasn't a love triangle. It was a dynastic coup.
VII. Vanora, the Forgotten Queen
We remember Guinevere as a traitor. But what if the real story is darker?
Maybe Guinevere wasn’t a lover — she was a lynchpin. A Pictish queen whose bloodline held a kingdom together.
Her memory survives in a mound. Her image is carved in stone. The patriarchy called her a traitor. The Highland wind remembers her as queen.
VIII. The DNA Speaks
E-M35 shows up where it shouldn’t: in the Highlands, in clans that trace to Loch Lomond, to the ancient Lennox, to the ruins of Tirivadich.
It doesn’t match the Gaelic norm. It matches something older. Something Scythian.
If the Picts were descended from Scythian men who took Gaelic wives under oath to pass power through the maternal line…
Then Vanora was more than Arthur's queen.
She was the mother of a kingdom.
IX. Conclusion: Scotland's Painted Queens
The legend of Vanora isn’t fantasy. It is history remembered sideways. The Picts may have been founded by exiled Scythians, arriving in Alba around 246 AD. They took wives. Built kingdoms. Buried their symbols in stone.
And one day, someone will test the DNA under Vanora’s Mound. And we will finally know if Guinevere was never a myth.
She was Pictish. She was royal. And she was real.
Future Research Suggestions:
DNA extraction from remains in Vanora’s Mound
Broader Y-DNA triangulation of Highland E-M35 lines
Comparative Steppe-Pict DNA from ancient remains
Re-examination of Barry Hill Fort as a site of dynastic detention
#VanoraWasReal #ClansOfScotland #KingArthurInScotland #ScythianScotland #GuinevereWasPictish #DNAOverDeeds #PaintedQueens #E_M35 #MeigleStone #ForgottenMatriarchs
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