Note 484 — Chapter VII · THE KINGDOM OF ALBAN.
Reading edition
War of the Gaedhil with the Gaill, p. 29. The death of Donnchadh, king of Cashel, which took place in 888, fixes the date. ‘In hujus regno bellum est factum in Visibsolian inter Danarios et Scottos. Scotti habuerunt victoriam. Oppidum Fother occisum est a gentibus.’ This place, called Visibsolian, or Visibcolian, may be Collie, near Dunkeld. Oppidum is, in this chronicle, the Latin rendering of Dun, and the place where he was slain—for this seems what is meant by ‘occisum est’—was Dun Fother. That this place was in Kincardineshire, and has improperly been supposed to mean Forres, is apparent from St. Berchan, who says
‘Nine years to the king
Traversing the borders,
One after another in every place;
With Galls, with Gael.
He will disperse the Gael for a purpose
At the end over Fotherdun.
Upon the brink of the waves he lies
In the east in his broad gory bed.’
Fotherdun in this poem is now Fordun, the name of the parish in which Dun Fother, or Dunotter, is situated. By “gentibus”“gentibus” probably Norwegians are meant.