[307]. Bede, ii. c. 20. The chronicle annexed to Nennius dates this battle in 630, and Tighernac in 631, when he has ‘Cath itir Etuin mac Ailli regis Saxonum, qui totam Britanniam regnavit, in quo victus est a Chon rege Britonum et Panta Saxano;’ but Tighernac dates Anglic events two or three years before Bede.
[308]. Bede, Hist. Ec. B. iv. c. 1.
[309]. Adamnan, Vit. Col. Book i. c. 1.
[310]. 632 Cath la Cathlon et Anfraith qui decollatus est, in quo Osualt mac Etalfraith victor erat et Catlon rex Britonum cecidit.—Tigh.
[311]. 635 Cath Seghuisse in quo cecidit Lochene mac Nechtain Cennfota et Cumascach mac Aengussa.—Tigh. Bellum Seguse in quo cecidit Lochne mac Nechtain Ceannfotai agus Cumuscach mac Aengusso agus Gartnait mac Oith.—An. Ult.
[312]. 678 Cath i Calitros in quo victus est Domhnall breacc.—Tigh. The battle is entered under wrong year, being after Domnall Breac’s death; but as Tighernac, who records his death at 642, repeats it at 686, it may be held to have taken place eight years before his death. The cause of these misplaced entries will be afterwards noticed.
[313]. Iisdem finibus regnum tenuit.—B. ii. c. v.
[314]. Pink. Vit. SS. p. 30. Adamnan, Vit. S. Col. B. iii. c. vi.
[315]. An ancient historical romance called the Battle of Magh Rath was published in the original Irish, with a translation and notes, for the Irish Archæological Society, by Dr. O’Donovan, which may be consulted with advantage, but it contains the anachronism of Congal Claen applying to Eochadh Buidhe as the then reigning king of Dalriada, who had died eight years before. Mr. Burton has strangely misrepresented the Dalriadic history, arising probably from a too superficial examination of the Irish Annals, and a want of acquaintance with Irish names and words, which he rarely gives correctly. In vol. i. p. 289, he states of Aidan that by his descent from Riadha he belonged to the race of the Hy Neill, but this is a mistake. The Dalriads belonged to an entirely different branch of the Scots from the Hy Neill. He says that Aidan justified Saint Columba’s prophetic fears by emancipating his territory from dependence on the monarchs of Ireland, but it was Saint Columba himself who effected this emancipation at the Council of Drumceatt. He says that Domnall Brecc contemplated the subjugation of Ireland, and implies that the Dalriadic kings put forward some pretensions to the Irish throne, of which there is not the least trace. The only successor of Domnall Brecc whom Mr. Burton notices is Eocha, or Auchy as he calls him, son of Aodhfin, in 796, a fictitious king who never existed.
[316]. 638 Cath Glinnemairison in quo mundert Domnall Bricc do teichedh (the people of Domnall Brecc fled) et obsessio Etin.—Tigh. The Ulster Annals have Glenmureson. Glenmoriston in Inverness-shire is of course out of the question, and the only name in a suitable situation is the Mureston Water, in the parishes of West and Mid Calder, on the south bank of the Almond, and between it and the Mureston Water are four barrows or tumuli, near which, according to common tradition, a great battle was fought in early times between the Picts and Scots.—N. S. A. vol. i. p. 373. That Etin here is Edinburgh need not be doubted.