DR RUSSELL Ó RÍAGÁIN, University of St Andrews, takes a settlement-based approach to the social processes at work in mid-west Scotland between the Early Iron Age and later Middle Ages, which saw the rise and dissolution of the Dál Riata overkingdom and the emergence of Innsi Gall and Airer Gáedel. Based on a ten-year research project, such a time-sweep enables full treatment of the continuity of use of certain forms of settlement and portable material culture, while also drawing into stark contrast the changes at work. The physical evidence covered will include the distributions in space and time of Atlantic stone roundhouses, multiple forms of settlement enclosures, crannóga, ecclesiastical sites, unenclosed settlements, castles and more, with burial evidence and placenames also brought into the mix as proxies. The talk will conclude with a discussion of how this evidence can be used both to inform political history and to explore shifting social, economic and religious practices over the long term.