 Instead, he has inferred that Argyll formed part of a common Q-Celtic-speaking area with Ireland, connected rather than divided by the sea, since the Iron Age.These arguments have been opposed by some scholars defending the early dating of the traditional accounts and arguing for other interpretations of the archeological evidence.Regardless of how it came to be spoken in the region, Gaelic in Scotland was mostly confined to until the eighth century, when it began expanding into Pictish areas north of the Firth of Forth and the Firth of Clyde.