Ancient Tap O' Noth hillfort in Aberdeenshire one of 'largest ever'

In 2020, archaeologists uncovered a forgotten Pictish fortress in the Scottish Highlands—one so massive, it could rewrite everything we thought we knew about early medieval Britain. Built centuries before cities were supposed to exist in Scotland, Tap o’ Noth reveals a thriving urban stronghold hidden in plain sight. Who were the Picts? How did they vanish so completely? And why did history forget their greatest achievement? Join us as we journey into the misty past to uncover a lost kingdom carved into stone, fire, and silence. The hill is speaking—and we’re finally ready to listen.
Archaeologists Just Found the Pictish Capital, And It’s Massive | 17:30
Business Hook | 91.4K subscribers | 83,457 views | May 22, 2025

--> YouTube-Generated Transcript <--
0:00 · so when we started excavating here we
0:01 · found that there were a series of
0:06 · enclosures and all of that was enclosing
0:08 · several buildings probably hall type
0:10 · buildings uh which is quite rare to find
0:12 · in Pish architecture this windswept hill
0:16 · in northern Scotland hides a secret more
0:18 · ancient than the legends of Arthur for
0:20 · centuries it was just another rise on
0:22 · the land forgotten silent invisible to
0:25 · history's eye but now it whispers a
0:27 · story of lost kingdoms of painted
0:29 · warriors and a power that once ruled the
0:31 · highlands at Tapo North archaeologists
0:34 · have uncovered a city-sized fortress
0:36 · that may rewrite everything we thought
0:38 · we knew about early medieval Britain a
0:40 · thriving metropolis where none should
0:43 · have stood a pictish enigma built in the
0:45 · twilight after Rome's fall this is the
0:48 · mystery of a civilization that refused
0:50 · to vanish
0:53 · a kingdom lost in the mist long before
0:55 · castles dotted the Scottish Highlands
0:58 · there were stories written in earth and
0:59 · fire the Roman Empire had collapsed
1:02 · leaving behind broken roads and
1:03 · forgotten temples most of Britain was
1:06 · slipping into what many called the dark
1:07 · ages but beyond the edges of Roman maps
1:10 · beyond the stone walls of Hadrien and
1:12 · Antonine a different kind of world was
1:15 · taking shape up in the hills where
1:17 · clouds linger low the picss were
1:19 · building something of their own we don't
1:21 · know much about them not their language
1:23 · not their gods not even what they called
1:25 · themselves the name picked comes from
1:28 · outsiders Roman writers who labeled them
1:31 · the painted ones likely because of
1:33 · tattoos or war paint that single word is
1:36 · almost all the world remembered a
1:38 · nickname passed through time like a
1:40 · whisper for centuries they were seen as
1:42 · scattered tribal even primitive left out
1:45 · of the larger tales of kingdoms and
1:47 · emperors that was the story passed down
1:50 · but stories can lie or forget because on
1:53 · a lonely hill in Aberdineer Scotland
1:55 · archaeologists uncovered something that
1:57 · changed everything taponoth once thought
2:00 · to be an ancient Bronze Age hill fort
2:02 · turned out to be something far grander
2:05 · not a ruin not a camp a city built by a
2:08 · people we barely understand built when
2:10 · no one believed they could this wasn't a
2:13 · flicker of civilization it was a flame
2:16 · one that burned brighter than anyone had
2:18 · imagined until the mist rolled in and
2:21 · covered it for
2:23 · centuries the day the hill spoke it
2:27 · began like many digs do with quiet
2:29 · footsteps notebooks and cautious hopes a
2:32 · team from Aberdine University climbed
2:34 · the windswept slopes of Taponoth
2:36 · expecting maybe a few Iron Age stones
2:39 · some ancient ash the hill had been
2:41 · surveyed before nothing remarkable had
2:43 · been found but this time the hill spoke
2:46 · not with words but with walls massive
2:49 · ramparts emerged from the earth far
2:52 · thicker and more complex than anyone had
2:54 · guessed as they dug further a pattern
2:56 · began to form rows upon rows of
2:59 · structures house foundations layered in
3:01 · the soil not 10 not 50 hundreds over 800
3:06 · buildings in total carefully arranged
3:08 · built with purpose this wasn't a lookout
3:11 · post it wasn't a shelter from the cold
3:13 · it was a settlement no one expected a
3:15 · city to rise out of this lonely Scottish
3:17 · hillside especially not from the fifth
3:19 · or sixth century a time still called
3:22 · dark by many historians but radiocarbon
3:24 · dating didn't lie this stronghold
3:26 · belonged to the picss and it wasn't
3:28 · small it may have housed 4,000 people an
3:31 · urban population nearly unheard of in
3:34 · Scotland until the 12th century the
3:36 · scale of it shook assumptions how had we
3:38 · missed this how could a site so large so
3:41 · structured so alive have remained a
3:44 · secret maybe we weren't ready to see it
3:46 · before maybe we weren't listening but
3:49 · now Taponoth is impossible to ignore and
3:52 · its silence has become a
3:54 · roar the shadow of Rome to understand
3:57 · the weight of Tapono's discovery we have
4:00 · to go back to when Britain lost its
4:02 · master rome once the unshakable power
4:05 · stretching from the Atlantic to the
4:06 · Euphrates was crumbling by the early
4:09 · fifth century its legions had withdrawn
4:11 · from Britain the empire's roads cracked
4:13 · cities emptied a great silence followed
4:16 · most of southern Britain splintered
4:18 · petty kingdoms rose warlords seized
4:21 · crumbling forts and chaos seemed to rule
4:24 · but in the north where the Romans never
4:26 · truly conquered something else happened
4:29 · the Ps long dismissed as wild tribes
4:32 · beyond civilization didn't disappear
4:35 · when Rome pulled back they rose for
4:38 · years they had watched from the hills
4:40 · seen Roman tactics absorbed Roman
4:42 · weapons perhaps even fought in their
4:44 · wars but they kept their own ways when
4:47 · the empire retreated the picss didn't
4:50 · follow they built something of their own
4:53 · taponoth may have been born from this
4:55 · shift it's no Roman city no marble
4:58 · temples or aqueducts here but it carries
5:00 · a different kind of order a fortress is
5:03 · designed not just for defense but for
5:05 · the community its ramparts speak of
5:07 · strategy its houses of daily life
5:10 · pictish forts like here at Den were
5:14 · probably also destroyed during this
5:16 · period its sheer size of ambition where
5:19 · the south saw decline the north answered
5:22 · with construction in the ruins of empire
5:25 · a new power stepped forward and in the
5:28 · shadow left behind by Rome the picss
5:30 · carved a space for themselves bold
5:33 · silent and forgotten until
5:37 · now who were the picss really we see
5:40 · them in fragments strange symbols etched
5:43 · into stones faces imagined in warrior
5:46 · paint a people without a voice in their
5:48 · own words that's the challenge of the
5:50 · picss their history isn't written it's
5:53 · carved scattered and buried but the
5:56 · pieces are starting to fit together they
5:58 · weren't just raiders from the mist or
6:00 · nameless hill dwellers the evidence now
6:02 · shows they were organized artistic and
6:05 · engaged with the world beyond their
6:07 · borders their carvings are unlike
6:09 · anything in Europe creatures that defy
6:12 · easy explanation symbols repeated across
6:15 · vast distances some may represent clans
6:18 · others ideas lost to time but they meant
6:22 · something these weren't just decorations
6:25 · they were declarations angling cavalry
6:28 · are depicted retreating from the scene
6:31 · with the Pictish army in hot pursuit at
6:34 · Tapon North the carvings are only part
6:37 · of the story the structures speak louder
6:40 · you can almost see how they lived small
6:43 · homes grouped with care places for
6:46 · gathering cooking working metal or
6:48 · weaving cloth objects from other lands
6:51 · have been found here hinting at trade
6:53 · possibly even as far as the
6:55 · Mediterranean yet still no writing no
6:58 · laws no scrolls no king lists we don't
7:02 · know the names of those who ruled this
7:04 · place but we know they built it we know
7:07 · they defended it and we know that for a
7:10 · time they thrived not as shadows but as
7:14 · people now first like always be sure to
7:17 · hit the like button down below it helps
7:19 · us out tremendously with the reach of
7:21 · this video thank you a fortress that
7:25 · shouldn't exist when most people imagine
7:28 · ancient Scotland they think of scattered
7:30 · huts or lonely towers standing against
7:32 · the wind but Tapo North doesn't fit that
7:35 · picture it breaks it completely the
7:39 · site's sheer size is almost hard to
7:41 · grasp 17 acres enclosed protected
7:45 · structured more than 800 individual
7:47 · dwellings are packed into the hills
7:49 · slopes that's not just a village that's
7:53 · urban planning centuries before Scotland
7:55 · was supposed to have cities for
7:58 · comparison the mighty Tintagel in
8:00 · Cornwall often linked with the legend of
8:02 · King Arthur covers just 5 acres cadbury
8:05 · Castle another contender for Camelot
8:08 · stretches across seven even Berghead
8:11 · once considered the largest pictish
8:12 · stronghold is dwarfed by Taponoth so why
8:16 · was this place overlooked for so long
8:19 · the answer may lie in assumptions for
8:21 · decades historians believe that post
8:24 · Roman Britain was fragmented and
8:26 · backward that only in the south did
8:28 · large centers of power survive but here
8:31 · on a windswept hill in Aberdine that
8:34 · belief begins to crumble taponoth
8:36 · rewrites the map it forces us to ask
8:39 · what else have we missed if a metropolis
8:42 · could rise here what might still lie
8:44 · buried across the highlands the picss
8:47 · were never just a footnote they were
8:49 · architects of an age we're only now
8:51 · beginning to
8:53 · understand life on the hill imagine
8:56 · waking up on Tapo North 1500 years ago
8:59 · the sun rises over a patchwork of wooden
9:02 · homes smoke curling from chimneys
9:05 · children are running between the huts
9:07 · livestock stirring the clang of tools
9:10 · the rhythm of survival this wasn't just
9:13 · a military outpost it was a community
9:17 · the homes were clustered in organized
9:19 · patterns small round or rectangular
9:21 · dwellings likely made of timber and
9:23 · thatch some were larger possibly
9:26 · belonging to local leaders or crafts
9:28 · people others may have doubled as
9:30 · workshops there were storage pits and
9:33 · hearths even drainage systems showing
9:36 · thought and planning people here farmed
9:39 · they raised cattle sheep and pigs they
9:41 · grew barley and wheat they made pottery
9:44 · and tools they wore jewelry some crafted
9:47 · from local materials others imported
9:50 · hinting at trade routes we still don't
9:52 · fully understand and they watched the
9:54 · horizon defensive walls suggest they
9:57 · feared attack perhaps from rival tribes
10:00 · perhaps from the encroaching
10:01 · Anglo-Saxons moving northward maybe even
10:03 · from the Norse yet despite these threats
10:06 · life thrived there was faith too though
10:10 · not the Christianity we associate with
10:12 · later centuries here in the fifth and
10:14 · sixth centuries older beliefs likely
10:17 · held sway spirits of the land ancestors
10:21 · symbols carved in stone each home tells
10:24 · a story and together they whisper of a
10:27 · people proud organized and anything but
10:32 · primitive the winds of change by the
10:35 · late sixth and early 7th centuries the
10:37 · world around Tapo North was changing new
10:40 · forces were creeping in from the south
10:42 · and across the sea the Anglo-Saxons were
10:45 · expanding christian monks were traveling
10:48 · north with crosses and scripture the
10:50 · ancient gods were beginning to fall
10:52 · silent what did that mean for the people
10:54 · on the hill we don't know if Taponoth
10:57 · had a church but we do know that by this
10:59 · time Christianity had begun its slow
11:02 · spread into Pictish lands missionaries
11:04 · like St columba arrived with words of
11:06 · peace and a message of transformation
11:09 · some converted others
11:11 · resisted the old symbols remained carved
11:14 · into stones even after the cross had
11:16 · taken root change also came with
11:19 · conflict the Anglo-Saxons weren't just
11:22 · settlers they were conquerors as they
11:25 · moved northward they brought war
11:27 · alliances and pressure the once isolated
11:31 · citadels of the picss found themselves
11:33 · in the path of shifting empires for
11:36 · Taponoth the story becomes quiet again
11:39 · at some point people left the homes were
11:41 · emptied the fires went cold was it war
11:45 · disease migration we may never know but
11:49 · what's clear is this tapono stood tall
11:52 · during one of Britain's greatest
11:54 · transformations and when it faded a new
11:57 · kind of kingdom was rising one shaped by
12:00 · monks kings and foreign
12:03 · swords a network of hidden kings
12:06 · taponoth may have been vast but it
12:08 · wasn't alone across the rugged terrain
12:11 · of what is now Scotland other
12:13 · strongholds Berghead Dundern and Craig
12:16 · Fedri hint at a network of power
12:19 · stretching from coast to coast each was
12:22 · likely ruled by its own elite but were
12:24 · they rivals or part of a larger Pictish
12:27 · Confederation that's the puzzle
12:29 · historians are now trying to solve these
12:31 · hill forts weren't built randomly they
12:34 · occupied strategic locations overlooking
12:36 · valleys rivers and ancient roads they
12:39 · suggest coordination planning perhaps
12:42 · even hierarchy and if Tapo North was the
12:45 · largest could it have been the center a
12:47 · capital of sorts we may never know the
12:50 · names of the kings who ruled here but
12:52 · there's reason to believe Tapo North
12:54 · wasn't just a fortress it was a seat of
12:57 · governance a place where decisions were
12:59 · made alliances forged and power
13:02 · consolidated
13:04 · unlike the Roman world pictish rule
13:06 · didn't leave behind coins or statues but
13:09 · it left impressions in stones in fire
13:12 · hardened walls in layers of earth it
13:15 · tells us that kingship wasn't foreign to
13:18 · them it was embedded in their hills and
13:21 · if Taponoth was once a throne among
13:23 · clouds then its rediscovery is like
13:25 · finding a ghost wearing a crown a
13:28 · glimpse into a kingdom built of memory
13:30 · and stone
13:33 · the vanishing of a people by the 10th
13:36 · century something strange had happened
13:38 · the picss once a dominant force in
13:41 · northern Britain had vanished not in
13:43 · battle not in some dramatic collapse
13:47 · they faded slowly into another culture
13:50 · their language disappeared their name
13:52 · was no longer used and soon they were
13:55 · only a memory in monastic chronicles so
13:59 · what happened the answer may lie in
14:02 · absorption not extinction over the
14:05 · generations the picss merged with Gaelic
14:07 · speaking Scots from the west through
14:10 · marriage war and shared belief a new
14:13 · identity formed Alba the early
14:15 · foundation of what would become Scotland
14:18 · in this fusion the picss didn't vanish
14:21 · they transformed yet the silence around
14:24 · them remains eerie their symbols cease
14:26 · to be carved their stories were never
14:29 · written down we're left with ruins
14:31 · stones and guesses some say it was
14:34 · Christianity that finished the
14:35 · transition others blame Viking raids
14:38 · which hit the northern coasts with
14:40 · devastating force monasteries burned
14:42 · leaders fell old systems broke whatever
14:46 · the cause by the time medieval scribes
14:49 · were recording history the picss were
14:51 · already in the past a people remembered
14:54 · more by mystery than memory but sites
14:57 · like Tapo North crack open the silence
15:00 · they show that the picss weren't fading
15:02 · shadows they were builders of fortresses
15:05 · makers of culture and architects of
15:07 · their own legacy they didn't vanish we
15:10 · just forgot how to hear
15:12 · them echoes in the earth today Taponoth
15:16 · stands quiet again sheep graze where
15:19 · once stood thousands wind whistles
15:22 · through empty stones and yet something
15:25 · has changed
15:26 · this hill now carries a new weight one
15:29 · that stretches across time
15:32 · archaeologists are still working each
15:34 · season uncovers more pottery shards post
15:38 · holes the remains of hearths advanced
15:40 · technologies like ground penetrating
15:42 · radar and LAR scans have only just begun
15:45 · to map what lies beneath the surface
15:48 · with every layer peeled back the picture
15:51 · grows clearer but this is more than just
15:53 · one sight it's a spark a signal that we
15:57 · may have overlooked a vast chapter of
16:00 · history if such a massive settlement
16:02 · existed here how many others have been
16:04 · lost beneath Pete and forest what other
16:07 · truths have we buried under old
16:09 · assumptions taponoth challenges us to
16:11 · look again i would like to question the
16:13 · neat timelines we've written to ask
16:16 · whether the so-called dark ages were
16:18 · really dark at all it also invites
16:20 · imagination who were the children who
16:23 · played on these slopes who were the
16:25 · elders who ruled by fire light what
16:27 · songs were sung here what stories were
16:30 · passed down now lost in the wind in
16:33 · every rock every bone there's a chance
16:36 · to rediscover a world thought forgotten
16:39 · the pics may be gone but their echoes
16:41 · remain in the earth waiting to be heard
16:45 · the picss left no books no grand
16:47 · cathedrals no crowned legends in gold
16:51 · but they left Taponoth a fortress in the
16:54 · clouds a whisper from a forgotten world
16:58 · in a land long thought to be broken by
17:01 · Rome's retreat they built something vast
17:04 · alive and defiant their story was buried
17:08 · but not lost and now stone by stone
17:12 · we're beginning to hear it
17:14 · as archaeologists dig deeper and
17:17 · technology reveals what eyes cannot see
17:20 · the silent hills are speaking again
17:23 · history isn't always written sometimes
17:25 · it waits sometimes it sleeps beneath
17:28 · your feet just waiting to be remembered

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--> YouTube-Generated Transcript <--
0:00	·	so when we started excavating here we
0:01	·	found that there were a series of
0:06	·	enclosures and all of that was enclosing
0:08	·	several buildings probably hall type
0:10	·	buildings uh which is quite rare to find
0:12	·	in Pish architecture this windswept hill
0:16	·	in northern Scotland hides a secret more
0:18	·	ancient than the legends of Arthur for
0:20	·	centuries it was just another rise on
0:22	·	the land forgotten silent invisible to
0:25	·	history's eye but now it whispers a
0:27	·	story of lost kingdoms of painted
0:29	·	warriors and a power that once ruled the
0:31	·	highlands at Tapo North archaeologists
0:34	·	have uncovered a city-sized fortress
0:36	·	that may rewrite everything we thought
0:38	·	we knew about early medieval Britain a
0:40	·	thriving metropolis where none should
0:43	·	have stood a pictish enigma built in the
0:45	·	twilight after Rome's fall this is the
0:48	·	mystery of a civilization that refused
0:50	·	to vanish
0:53	·	a kingdom lost in the mist long before
0:55	·	castles dotted the Scottish Highlands
0:58	·	there were stories written in earth and
0:59	·	fire the Roman Empire had collapsed
1:02	·	leaving behind broken roads and
1:03	·	forgotten temples most of Britain was
1:06	·	slipping into what many called the dark
1:07	·	ages but beyond the edges of Roman maps
1:10	·	beyond the stone walls of Hadrien and
1:12	·	Antonine a different kind of world was
1:15	·	taking shape up in the hills where
1:17	·	clouds linger low the picss were
1:19	·	building something of their own we don't
1:21	·	know much about them not their language
1:23	·	not their gods not even what they called
1:25	·	themselves the name picked comes from
1:28	·	outsiders Roman writers who labeled them
1:31	·	the painted ones likely because of
1:33	·	tattoos or war paint that single word is
1:36	·	almost all the world remembered a
1:38	·	nickname passed through time like a
1:40	·	whisper for centuries they were seen as
1:42	·	scattered tribal even primitive left out
1:45	·	of the larger tales of kingdoms and
1:47	·	emperors that was the story passed down
1:50	·	but stories can lie or forget because on
1:53	·	a lonely hill in Aberdineer Scotland
1:55	·	archaeologists uncovered something that
1:57	·	changed everything taponoth once thought
2:00	·	to be an ancient Bronze Age hill fort
2:02	·	turned out to be something far grander
2:05	·	not a ruin not a camp a city built by a
2:08	·	people we barely understand built when
2:10	·	no one believed they could this wasn't a
2:13	·	flicker of civilization it was a flame
2:16	·	one that burned brighter than anyone had
2:18	·	imagined until the mist rolled in and
2:21	·	covered it for
2:23	·	centuries the day the hill spoke it
2:27	·	began like many digs do with quiet
2:29	·	footsteps notebooks and cautious hopes a
2:32	·	team from Aberdine University climbed
2:34	·	the windswept slopes of Taponoth
2:36	·	expecting maybe a few Iron Age stones
2:39	·	some ancient ash the hill had been
2:41	·	surveyed before nothing remarkable had
2:43	·	been found but this time the hill spoke
2:46	·	not with words but with walls massive
2:49	·	ramparts emerged from the earth far
2:52	·	thicker and more complex than anyone had
2:54	·	guessed as they dug further a pattern
2:56	·	began to form rows upon rows of
2:59	·	structures house foundations layered in
3:01	·	the soil not 10 not 50 hundreds over 800
3:06	·	buildings in total carefully arranged
3:08	·	built with purpose this wasn't a lookout
3:11	·	post it wasn't a shelter from the cold
3:13	·	it was a settlement no one expected a
3:15	·	city to rise out of this lonely Scottish
3:17	·	hillside especially not from the fifth
3:19	·	or sixth century a time still called
3:22	·	dark by many historians but radiocarbon
3:24	·	dating didn't lie this stronghold
3:26	·	belonged to the picss and it wasn't
3:28	·	small it may have housed 4,000 people an
3:31	·	urban population nearly unheard of in
3:34	·	Scotland until the 12th century the
3:36	·	scale of it shook assumptions how had we
3:38	·	missed this how could a site so large so
3:41	·	structured so alive have remained a
3:44	·	secret maybe we weren't ready to see it
3:46	·	before maybe we weren't listening but
3:49	·	now Taponoth is impossible to ignore and
3:52	·	its silence has become a
3:54	·	roar the shadow of Rome to understand
3:57	·	the weight of Tapono's discovery we have
4:00	·	to go back to when Britain lost its
4:02	·	master rome once the unshakable power
4:05	·	stretching from the Atlantic to the
4:06	·	Euphrates was crumbling by the early
4:09	·	fifth century its legions had withdrawn
4:11	·	from Britain the empire's roads cracked
4:13	·	cities emptied a great silence followed
4:16	·	most of southern Britain splintered
4:18	·	petty kingdoms rose warlords seized
4:21	·	crumbling forts and chaos seemed to rule
4:24	·	but in the north where the Romans never
4:26	·	truly conquered something else happened
4:29	·	the Ps long dismissed as wild tribes
4:32	·	beyond civilization didn't disappear
4:35	·	when Rome pulled back they rose for
4:38	·	years they had watched from the hills
4:40	·	seen Roman tactics absorbed Roman
4:42	·	weapons perhaps even fought in their
4:44	·	wars but they kept their own ways when
4:47	·	the empire retreated the picss didn't
4:50	·	follow they built something of their own
4:53	·	taponoth may have been born from this
4:55	·	shift it's no Roman city no marble
4:58	·	temples or aqueducts here but it carries
5:00	·	a different kind of order a fortress is
5:03	·	designed not just for defense but for
5:05	·	the community its ramparts speak of
5:07	·	strategy its houses of daily life
5:10	·	pictish forts like here at Den were
5:14	·	probably also destroyed during this
5:16	·	period its sheer size of ambition where
5:19	·	the south saw decline the north answered
5:22	·	with construction in the ruins of empire
5:25	·	a new power stepped forward and in the
5:28	·	shadow left behind by Rome the picss
5:30	·	carved a space for themselves bold
5:33	·	silent and forgotten until
5:37	·	now who were the picss really we see
5:40	·	them in fragments strange symbols etched
5:43	·	into stones faces imagined in warrior
5:46	·	paint a people without a voice in their
5:48	·	own words that's the challenge of the
5:50	·	picss their history isn't written it's
5:53	·	carved scattered and buried but the
5:56	·	pieces are starting to fit together they
5:58	·	weren't just raiders from the mist or
6:00	·	nameless hill dwellers the evidence now
6:02	·	shows they were organized artistic and
6:05	·	engaged with the world beyond their
6:07	·	borders their carvings are unlike
6:09	·	anything in Europe creatures that defy
6:12	·	easy explanation symbols repeated across
6:15	·	vast distances some may represent clans
6:18	·	others ideas lost to time but they meant
6:22	·	something these weren't just decorations
6:25	·	they were declarations angling cavalry
6:28	·	are depicted retreating from the scene
6:31	·	with the Pictish army in hot pursuit at
6:34	·	Tapon North the carvings are only part
6:37	·	of the story the structures speak louder
6:40	·	you can almost see how they lived small
6:43	·	homes grouped with care places for
6:46	·	gathering cooking working metal or
6:48	·	weaving cloth objects from other lands
6:51	·	have been found here hinting at trade
6:53	·	possibly even as far as the
6:55	·	Mediterranean yet still no writing no
6:58	·	laws no scrolls no king lists we don't
7:02	·	know the names of those who ruled this
7:04	·	place but we know they built it we know
7:07	·	they defended it and we know that for a
7:10	·	time they thrived not as shadows but as
7:14	·	people now first like always be sure to
7:17	·	hit the like button down below it helps
7:19	·	us out tremendously with the reach of
7:21	·	this video thank you a fortress that
7:25	·	shouldn't exist when most people imagine
7:28	·	ancient Scotland they think of scattered
7:30	·	huts or lonely towers standing against
7:32	·	the wind but Tapo North doesn't fit that
7:35	·	picture it breaks it completely the
7:39	·	site's sheer size is almost hard to
7:41	·	grasp 17 acres enclosed protected
7:45	·	structured more than 800 individual
7:47	·	dwellings are packed into the hills
7:49	·	slopes that's not just a village that's
7:53	·	urban planning centuries before Scotland
7:55	·	was supposed to have cities for
7:58	·	comparison the mighty Tintagel in
8:00	·	Cornwall often linked with the legend of
8:02	·	King Arthur covers just 5 acres cadbury
8:05	·	Castle another contender for Camelot
8:08	·	stretches across seven even Berghead
8:11	·	once considered the largest pictish
8:12	·	stronghold is dwarfed by Taponoth so why
8:16	·	was this place overlooked for so long
8:19	·	the answer may lie in assumptions for
8:21	·	decades historians believe that post
8:24	·	Roman Britain was fragmented and
8:26	·	backward that only in the south did
8:28	·	large centers of power survive but here
8:31	·	on a windswept hill in Aberdine that
8:34	·	belief begins to crumble taponoth
8:36	·	rewrites the map it forces us to ask
8:39	·	what else have we missed if a metropolis
8:42	·	could rise here what might still lie
8:44	·	buried across the highlands the picss
8:47	·	were never just a footnote they were
8:49	·	architects of an age we're only now
8:51	·	beginning to
8:53	·	understand life on the hill imagine
8:56	·	waking up on Tapo North 1500 years ago
8:59	·	the sun rises over a patchwork of wooden
9:02	·	homes smoke curling from chimneys
9:05	·	children are running between the huts
9:07	·	livestock stirring the clang of tools
9:10	·	the rhythm of survival this wasn't just
9:13	·	a military outpost it was a community
9:17	·	the homes were clustered in organized
9:19	·	patterns small round or rectangular
9:21	·	dwellings likely made of timber and
9:23	·	thatch some were larger possibly
9:26	·	belonging to local leaders or crafts
9:28	·	people others may have doubled as
9:30	·	workshops there were storage pits and
9:33	·	hearths even drainage systems showing
9:36	·	thought and planning people here farmed
9:39	·	they raised cattle sheep and pigs they
9:41	·	grew barley and wheat they made pottery
9:44	·	and tools they wore jewelry some crafted
9:47	·	from local materials others imported
9:50	·	hinting at trade routes we still don't
9:52	·	fully understand and they watched the
9:54	·	horizon defensive walls suggest they
9:57	·	feared attack perhaps from rival tribes
10:00	·	perhaps from the encroaching
10:01	·	Anglo-Saxons moving northward maybe even
10:03	·	from the Norse yet despite these threats
10:06	·	life thrived there was faith too though
10:10	·	not the Christianity we associate with
10:12	·	later centuries here in the fifth and
10:14	·	sixth centuries older beliefs likely
10:17	·	held sway spirits of the land ancestors
10:21	·	symbols carved in stone each home tells
10:24	·	a story and together they whisper of a
10:27	·	people proud organized and anything but
10:32	·	primitive the winds of change by the
10:35	·	late sixth and early 7th centuries the
10:37	·	world around Tapo North was changing new
10:40	·	forces were creeping in from the south
10:42	·	and across the sea the Anglo-Saxons were
10:45	·	expanding christian monks were traveling
10:48	·	north with crosses and scripture the
10:50	·	ancient gods were beginning to fall
10:52	·	silent what did that mean for the people
10:54	·	on the hill we don't know if Taponoth
10:57	·	had a church but we do know that by this
10:59	·	time Christianity had begun its slow
11:02	·	spread into Pictish lands missionaries
11:04	·	like St columba arrived with words of
11:06	·	peace and a message of transformation
11:09	·	some converted others
11:11	·	resisted the old symbols remained carved
11:14	·	into stones even after the cross had
11:16	·	taken root change also came with
11:19	·	conflict the Anglo-Saxons weren't just
11:22	·	settlers they were conquerors as they
11:25	·	moved northward they brought war
11:27	·	alliances and pressure the once isolated
11:31	·	citadels of the picss found themselves
11:33	·	in the path of shifting empires for
11:36	·	Taponoth the story becomes quiet again
11:39	·	at some point people left the homes were
11:41	·	emptied the fires went cold was it war
11:45	·	disease migration we may never know but
11:49	·	what's clear is this tapono stood tall
11:52	·	during one of Britain's greatest
11:54	·	transformations and when it faded a new
11:57	·	kind of kingdom was rising one shaped by
12:00	·	monks kings and foreign
12:03	·	swords a network of hidden kings
12:06	·	taponoth may have been vast but it
12:08	·	wasn't alone across the rugged terrain
12:11	·	of what is now Scotland other
12:13	·	strongholds Berghead Dundern and Craig
12:16	·	Fedri hint at a network of power
12:19	·	stretching from coast to coast each was
12:22	·	likely ruled by its own elite but were
12:24	·	they rivals or part of a larger Pictish
12:27	·	Confederation that's the puzzle
12:29	·	historians are now trying to solve these
12:31	·	hill forts weren't built randomly they
12:34	·	occupied strategic locations overlooking
12:36	·	valleys rivers and ancient roads they
12:39	·	suggest coordination planning perhaps
12:42	·	even hierarchy and if Tapo North was the
12:45	·	largest could it have been the center a
12:47	·	capital of sorts we may never know the
12:50	·	names of the kings who ruled here but
12:52	·	there's reason to believe Tapo North
12:54	·	wasn't just a fortress it was a seat of
12:57	·	governance a place where decisions were
12:59	·	made alliances forged and power
13:02	·	consolidated
13:04	·	unlike the Roman world pictish rule
13:06	·	didn't leave behind coins or statues but
13:09	·	it left impressions in stones in fire
13:12	·	hardened walls in layers of earth it
13:15	·	tells us that kingship wasn't foreign to
13:18	·	them it was embedded in their hills and
13:21	·	if Taponoth was once a throne among
13:23	·	clouds then its rediscovery is like
13:25	·	finding a ghost wearing a crown a
13:28	·	glimpse into a kingdom built of memory
13:30	·	and stone
13:33	·	the vanishing of a people by the 10th
13:36	·	century something strange had happened
13:38	·	the picss once a dominant force in
13:41	·	northern Britain had vanished not in
13:43	·	battle not in some dramatic collapse
13:47	·	they faded slowly into another culture
13:50	·	their language disappeared their name
13:52	·	was no longer used and soon they were
13:55	·	only a memory in monastic chronicles so
13:59	·	what happened the answer may lie in
14:02	·	absorption not extinction over the
14:05	·	generations the picss merged with Gaelic
14:07	·	speaking Scots from the west through
14:10	·	marriage war and shared belief a new
14:13	·	identity formed Alba the early
14:15	·	foundation of what would become Scotland
14:18	·	in this fusion the picss didn't vanish
14:21	·	they transformed yet the silence around
14:24	·	them remains eerie their symbols cease
14:26	·	to be carved their stories were never
14:29	·	written down we're left with ruins
14:31	·	stones and guesses some say it was
14:34	·	Christianity that finished the
14:35	·	transition others blame Viking raids
14:38	·	which hit the northern coasts with
14:40	·	devastating force monasteries burned
14:42	·	leaders fell old systems broke whatever
14:46	·	the cause by the time medieval scribes
14:49	·	were recording history the picss were
14:51	·	already in the past a people remembered
14:54	·	more by mystery than memory but sites
14:57	·	like Tapo North crack open the silence
15:00	·	they show that the picss weren't fading
15:02	·	shadows they were builders of fortresses
15:05	·	makers of culture and architects of
15:07	·	their own legacy they didn't vanish we
15:10	·	just forgot how to hear
15:12	·	them echoes in the earth today Taponoth
15:16	·	stands quiet again sheep graze where
15:19	·	once stood thousands wind whistles
15:22	·	through empty stones and yet something
15:25	·	has changed
15:26	·	this hill now carries a new weight one
15:29	·	that stretches across time
15:32	·	archaeologists are still working each
15:34	·	season uncovers more pottery shards post
15:38	·	holes the remains of hearths advanced
15:40	·	technologies like ground penetrating
15:42	·	radar and LAR scans have only just begun
15:45	·	to map what lies beneath the surface
15:48	·	with every layer peeled back the picture
15:51	·	grows clearer but this is more than just
15:53	·	one sight it's a spark a signal that we
15:57	·	may have overlooked a vast chapter of
16:00	·	history if such a massive settlement
16:02	·	existed here how many others have been
16:04	·	lost beneath Pete and forest what other
16:07	·	truths have we buried under old
16:09	·	assumptions taponoth challenges us to
16:11	·	look again i would like to question the
16:13	·	neat timelines we've written to ask
16:16	·	whether the so-called dark ages were
16:18	·	really dark at all it also invites
16:20	·	imagination who were the children who
16:23	·	played on these slopes who were the
16:25	·	elders who ruled by fire light what
16:27	·	songs were sung here what stories were
16:30	·	passed down now lost in the wind in
16:33	·	every rock every bone there's a chance
16:36	·	to rediscover a world thought forgotten
16:39	·	the pics may be gone but their echoes
16:41	·	remain in the earth waiting to be heard
16:45	·	the picss left no books no grand
16:47	·	cathedrals no crowned legends in gold
16:51	·	but they left Taponoth a fortress in the
16:54	·	clouds a whisper from a forgotten world
16:58	·	in a land long thought to be broken by
17:01	·	Rome's retreat they built something vast
17:04	·	alive and defiant their story was buried
17:08	·	but not lost and now stone by stone
17:12	·	we're beginning to hear it
17:14	·	as archaeologists dig deeper and
17:17	·	technology reveals what eyes cannot see
17:20	·	the silent hills are speaking again
17:23	·	history isn't always written sometimes
17:25	·	it waits sometimes it sleeps beneath
17:28	·	your feet just waiting to be remembered