ABSTRACT
This chapter assesses the significance of the results from excavations at Iona, Inchmarnock, Portmahomack, and St Andrews, and to compare these with the findings from the May Island in the Firth of Forth. The period in Scotland spans the conversions to Christianity in the 5th—7th centuries, the building of the first churches, and the introduction and expansion of monasteries, continuing up to the creation of the parish system and the introduction of European monastic orders in the later 11th and early 12th centuries. The greater emphasis the placed on prayers and masses might have resulted in a greater demand for the provision of churches which could provide pastoral care. There is some good evidence of church and monastic archaeology from the areas of south-west Scotland under British and Anglian control. Nevertheless, there is a strong likelihood that a significant proportion of the hundreds of later medieval parish churches and chapels were built to replace older churches on the same sites.
