Note 579 — Chapter VIII · THE KINGDOM OF SCOTIA.
Reading edition
1040 Donnchad rex Scotiæ in autumno occiditur (19 Kal. Sept.) a duce suo Macbethad mac Finnloech, cui successit in regnum annis 17.
Donnchad regnavit annis 5, hoc est, a missa Sancti Andreæ (14 Novr.) ad eandem et insuper ad nativitatem Sanctæ Mariæ.—Chron. Picts and Scots, p. 65. By this last festival Marianus means that of the Assumption, which was on the 15th of August. A poem quoted in the Orkneyinga Saga says the battle was fought on a Monday. The 19 Kal. Sept. or 14th of August fell in the year 1040 upon a Thursday, and the 15th on a Friday. Tighernac has under 1040 ‘Donnchadh mac Crinan Airdri Alban immatura ætate a suis occisus est.’ The later chronicles all agree that he was slain by Macbeth, in a place called Bothgouanan near Elgin. This is probably the place now called Pitgaveny; and if the battle was fought at Burghead, Duncan would retreat upon Elgin.