How dark were the Dark Ages?

[Imperial Dave]

https://www.historyextra.com/period/medieval/dark-ages-term-what-when-how-obscure/

basic overview with a few interesting observations although referencing the Scots as coming from Ireland is becoming a bit of a misnomer these days

[Erpingham]

I'm not entirely sure about his take on the Dark Ages.  I can see the sense of splitting the period within Britain into 400-650 and 650-1066 (with the usual caveats about continuity from one period to the other) but keeping the term Dark Ages for the first part could be confusing, given that it is still used for the whole period in popular culture and in many older scholarly works.  Using terms already used elsewhere, like Migration Period or Late Antique, would be less confusing.

[Jim Webster]

I'm not entirely sure about his take on the Dark Ages.  I can see the sense of splitting the period within Britain into 400-650 and 650-1066 (with the usual caveats about continuity from one period to the other) but keeping the term Dark Ages for the first part could be confusing, given that it is still used for the whole period in popular culture and in many older scholarly works.  Using terms already used elsewhere, like Migration Period or Late Antique, would be less confusing.

Late Antiquity seems popular where the Roman Empire never fell too spectacularly and there was urban society and literary sources remaining.
Migration Period is of course undermined by the fact that the migrations might have been less numerous than initially thought, and 'Escaping coloni and slaves joining barbarian warband' period is perhaps too much of a mouthful 

[Imperial Dave]

Oh I don't know.....