[469]. Collect. Reb. Alb. pp. 66, 69.
[470]. Normanni annum integrum degerunt in Pictavia.—Pict. Chron. 875 Ostin mac Amlaiph regis Nordmannorum ab Albanensibus per dolum occisus est.—An. Ult.
[471]. Tract on the Wars of the Gaidhil with the Gaill, p. 232. What the concluding sentence alludes to it is impossible now to say. ‘Paulo post ab eo bello in xiiij ejus facto in Dolair inter Danarios et Scottos. Occisi sunt Scotti co Ach Cochlam.’—Pict. Chron. The notice of Constantin’s reign by St. Berchan is defective, a few lines being lost in the concluding part, but there are still preserved the last two lines, which are significant enough—
On Thursday, in pools of blood,
On the shore of Inbhirdubhroda.
The Chronicle of St. Andrews has ‘Interfectus est a Norwegiensibus in bello Inverdufatha,’ which is obviously the same name as Inbhirdubhroda: the one meaning the Inver of the black ford, the other, of the black road. A record of this battle seems preserved in a charter in the Chartulary of St. Andrews, p. 274, where mention is made of the ‘congeries lapidum juxta viam de Inverdoveth versus Sanctum Andream.’ By another chronicle it is corrupted to ‘de Werdofatha,’ and supposing that ‘Wer’ was meant for ‘Wem,’ a cave, the Chronicum Elegiacum translates it Nigra specus, and from this the story that king Constantin was killed in a cave seems to have arisen. But St. Berchan leaves no doubt that Inbhir is the first part of the word, and the ancient Tract on the wars of the Gaidhel with the Gaill is conclusive that Constantin was killed in battle. Cochlam is probably the place called Kathlock, Cathlok, Catholok, between Kilmany and Inverdovat.
[472]. 876 Constantin mac Cinaeda rex Pictorum moritur.—An. Ult.
[473]. Ejus etiam brevitas nil historie memorabile commendavit, sed in civitate Nrurim est occisus. 878 Aedh mac Cinador rex Pictorum a sociis suis occisus est.—An. Ult. The later chronicles say that he was slain in battle in Strathallan by his successor Grig; but though he may have been slain in battle, it is certainly inconsistent with the earlier notices that his successor should have slain him. In a pass in the heights which separate Strathallan from Glenartney is a place called Blairnroar. The word Blair usually marks a battlefield, and here there are several upright stones and a cairn, in which several stone coffins were found.—N.S.A. vol. x. p. 326. The name is here misprinted Blairinroan.
[474]. Eochodius autem filius Run regis Britannorum nepos Cinadei ex filia regnavit annis xi. Licet Ciricium filium alii dicunt hic regnasse; eo quod alumpnus ordinatorque Eochodio fiebat.—Pict. Chron. Arthgal, Eocha’s grandfather, died in 872, and he could hardly have been born before 865. Donald could not have been born much before that date, if so early.
[475]. Chalmers announces without hesitation that Girig, or Grig as he calls him, was the Maormor of the extensive country between the Dee and Spey, and this has been repeated by most subsequent historians as if it were undoubted; but he gives no authority for it, and appears to have founded it upon the tradition that Gregory the Great, as he was called, died at Dunadeer in the Garioch. Such traditions, however, are the creation of our fabulous historians. The later chronicles give him a reign of twelve years, and add ‘mortuus est in Dundeorn.’ But one form of these chronicles extends his reign to eighteen years, and this is followed by Fordun, who changes Dundeorn to Donedoure, converted by tradition to Dunadeer. That the place meant was Dundurn on the Earn appears from St. Berchan, who calls him MacRath, or the son of Fortune, and says