Bede tells us that in the year 684 Ecgfrid sent Berct, his general, with an army into Ireland, and laid waste a part of the country, not even sparing the churches or monasteries, in spite of the advice of the most reverend father Ecgberct, an Anglic priest, who had been trained in Ireland, and lived much among the Scots and Picts; and we learn from the Irish Annals that the scene of this devastation was the plain of Breg, or the districts along the eastern shore from Dublin to Drogheda.[[347]] It seems difficult to suppose that Ecgfrid should have made so wanton an attack upon the Irish without some motive, and it seems probable that he either suspected that the Scots of Dalriada were obtaining help from their countrymen in Ireland, or wishing, by striking this blow, to prevent the Irish from supporting them in their attempt to recover their independence.
A.D. 685.
Invasion of kingdom of Picts by Ecgfrid; defeat and death at Dunnichen.
Be this as it may, Bede tells us that in the following year King Ecgfrid led an army to ravage the province of the Picts, and that, the enemy feigning a retreat, he was led into the straits of inaccessible mountains and slain with the greatest part of the forces which he had taken with him, on the 20th day of May, in the fortieth year of his age,[[348]] that is, in the year 685. The continuator of Nennius tells us that Ecgfrid made war against the descendants of his father’s brother, who was king of the Picts, and called Bridei, and fell there with the whole strength of his army, the Picts with their king being victorious, and that from the time of this war it was called the battle of Lingaran. Tighernac places the devastation in Ireland in the year 685, and this battle, which he calls the battle of Duin Nechtain, in the year 686. He agrees with Bede in stating that it took place on the 20th of June, and adds that it was fought on a Saturday, but as the 20th of June fell on a Saturday in the year 685, it is evident that Bede’s date is the correct one. Simeon of Durham says that the battle was fought at a place called Nechtan’s Mere, and the Annals of Ulster add the further fact that Ecgfrid had burnt Tula Aman and Duin Ollaig.[[349]] Ecgfrid appears therefore to have crossed the Forth at Stirling, and advanced through Perthshire to the Tay, where he burnt the place called Tula Aman at the mouth of the river Almond where it falls into the Tay. He seems at the same time to have sent a detachment from his army into Dalriada, where he burnt Duinollaig, now Dunolly, the chief stronghold of the Cinel Loarn. He then followed the retreating army of the Picts along the level country bounded on the north-west by the range of the Sidlaw hills, and in attempting incautiously to penetrate through the mountain range at Dunnichen was surrounded and defeated, his army being almost entirely cut off and himself slain. There was a lake, now drained, called the Mire of Dunnichen, where the battle was fought, and has left its record in the numerous stone coffins which have been found in the neighbourhood.[[350]]
An Irish annalist has preserved to us the following lines, attributed to Riagal of Bangor:—
‘This day Bruide fights a battle for the land of his grandfather,
Unless the Son of God will it otherwise, he will die in it:
This day the son of Ossa was killed in battle with green swords,
Although he did penance, he shall lie in Hi after his death:
This day the son of Ossa was killed, who had the black drink.
Christ heard our supplications, they spared Bruide the brave.’[brave.’][[351]]