Note 283 — Chapter V · THE FOUR KINGDOMS.

The oldest of the Latin Chronicles says that Fergus, first king of Dalriada, reigned ‘a monte Drumalban usque ad mare Hibernie et ad Inchegal’ (Chron. Picts and Scots, p. 130), apparently excluding the islands; but the tract De Situ Albaniæ, of the same date, has it ‘a monte Brunalban usque ad Mare Hiberniæ,’ and adds, ‘Deinde reges de semine Fergus regnaverunt in Brunalban sive Brunhere’ (Ib. p. 137). Brunalban seems to be the district on the east side of the range now called Breadalban, and Brunhere is probably Bruneire, and meant for the district on the west side of the range. There are two glens both called Glenlochy, the one proceeding from the range eastward to Loch Tay, the other westward to Loch Awe, and the former is called in charters Glenlochy Alban, to distinguish it from the other. We have therefore the term Alban applied to the country beyond the frontier of Dalriada, and the term Eire to Dalriada as being a colony of Scots from Eire. The south part of Morvern was called Kinelvadon or Cinelbhadon, from Badon, a son of Loarn, and therefore belonged to Dalriada. On the shoulder of the hill in Mull called Benmore, which forms the pass from the northern to the southern part of the island and is called Mamchlachaig, there are two cairns. The one on the north is called Carn Cul ri Alban, or the cairn with its back to Alban, and the other Carn Cul ri Erin, or the cairn with its back to Eire. There is a similar cairn on Iona and another on Colonsay, both called Carn Cul ri Eirin, which seem to mark the boundary. If Iona was exactly on the boundary which separated Dalriada from the Picts, it is obvious how Bede’s statement that it was given to Saint Columba by the Picts who inhabit the adjacent districts, is not inconsistent with that of Tighernac, that it was immolated to him by the king of Dalriada. The expression is ‘offeravit.’ See Reeves’s Adamnan, orig. ed., p. 434, for a judicious examination of this point.