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One of the most fundamental aspects of the twelfth century reformation of the Scottish Church was the establishment of a network of local parishes. The creation of parishes provided the revenues which, through appropriation, supported the reformed bishoprics and monastic houses which were the principal elements in the new ecclesiastical hierarchy. More significantly, however, parishes provided enduring local communities with an identity which has only been dislocated in recent times. The nature of parishes has not been fully appreciated, however, and their territorial and community aspects have received little attention from historians who have concentrated on parishes as ecclesiastical units. The institution of the parish was introduced to Scotland in the twelfth century, a late date by comparison with England and much of Continental Europe, and the provision of a full network of parishes was achieved in a remarkably short period of time. The formation of parishes has traditionally been attributed to Anglo-Norman influence and, in particular, to the settlement of incoming Anglo-Norman lords who built churches for parochial purposes on their new estates. The evidence for Perthshire, however, challenges this view and demonstrates that the principal persons involved in parochial establishment were the kings of Scots and the native earls who held much of the land there and who had organised their territories into parishes largely in advance of the settlement of Anglo-Norman lords. Furthermore, the forms taken by parishes were determined to a very great extent by the pre-existing patterns of settlement and secular territorial organisation. Similarly, churches which became parochial had, in many cases, a long history as local estate churches before the twelfth century. The parish units and communities of twelfth century Perthshire were largely the already established local units and communities in a new ecclesiastical guise.

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Place-names containing Gaelic cill are common throughout the Gaelic-speaking world. In the area of Argyll chosen by the present study, the second element of such names (cill + X) is nearly always the name of a saint. This thesis sets out to discover what these cill- names and their associated dedications to saints might contribute to the study of the early church in Dál Riata. Detailed studies are made of three saints who seem to be culted in or near the chosen three areas of study. These areas are then studied in detail: Kintyre, an area with an impressive density of cill- names; Kilmartin and Loch Awe, an area in the heart of Dál Riata, but perhaps at a border between two different cenéla, with Dunadd at its core; Bute, an area whose relationship with the various groups within Dál Riata and with the neighbouring Britons is interesting and uncertain. The data lying behind these studies is presented in a gazetteer of cill- sites and a table of saints. The former provides easy access to early forms of place-names, to archaeological data, history, analysis of the place-names and associated traditions. The latter was envisaged as a means of clarifying this difficult material. The many challenges which its construction revealed, however, became a major focus of enquiry: questions regarding where one saint stops and another begins, of layering the conflicting kinds of information into intelligent format, of being able to give any coherence to the development of the various cults over time. It is concluded that this kind of evidence must be treated with caution. Its usefulness in our interrogation of the history of the church in Dál Riata was limited, though a very rigorous use of hagiographical material, in particular martyrologies, produced a number of insights.