Battle of Barry
Encyclopedia
The Battle of Barry is a legendary battle in which the Scots
, purportedly led by Malcolm II
, defeated a Danish
invasion force in 1010 AD. Its supposed site in Carnoustie
, Angus
can be seen in early Ordnance Survey
maps. The history of the event relies heavily on tradition
and it is currently considered to be apocryphal. The battle was named for the Parish
of Barry, rather than the village
, and was formerly thought to have taken place at the mouth of the Lochty burn, in the vicinity of the area that is now occupied by Carnoustie High Street. While the battle is not historically authentic, its romantic appeal continues to capture the popular imagination.
The account of the battle was first recorded by sixteenth century Scots historian, Hector Boece
.
Boece informs us that Sueno, king of Denmark and England, unhappy with news of his army's defeat at Mortlach, ordered a naval task force to set sail for Scotland. Part of the force was to sail from Denmark, and the rest from the Thames
, both under the command of Camus
.
According to the legendary account, the army camped at St Abb's Head
for several days before sailing north, landing at Lunan Bay in Angus. After sacking Montrose
, the Army headed inland and razed the town of Brechin
to the ground. Camus received word that King Malcolm II had brought the Scots army to Dundee
and ordered the Danish army to march South, reaching the coast near to Panbride. The Scots army set camp at Barry, two miles to the West.
The two sides met and fought in the vicinity of the Lochty Burn, near where Carnoustie
town centre now lies. The fighting is said to have been so fierce that the Lochty burn ran red with the blood of the fallen.
Seeing that the battle was lost, Camus fled to the hills, pursued by Robert de Keith (fictional ancestor of the Marischals of Scotland
), who caught up with and slew him at Brae Downie where, it is said, the Camus Cross
(NO 519379) was erected in memory of him.
's Historia Gentis Scotorum, written in 1527. Boece's work was popularised following a fairly free translation by John Bellenden
into Scots in 1536, and its subsequent translation into English by Raphael Holinshed
ca. 1580. No record of the battle is found before Boece.
While George Buchanan
(ca. 1579) also mentions the battle in his work Rerum Scotarum Historia, his account borrows liberally from Boece. Boece is thought to have based much of his work on John of Fordun
's, Chronica Gentis Scotorum (ca. 1360). Fordun briefly mentions a battle at Mortlach but makes no mention of any at Barry:
It is possible that Fordun's account of the Battle of Mortlach is due to a distortion of local tradition. Mortlach is nearby the site of the battle in which Máel Coluim mac Donnchada
(Malcolm III) wrested power from Lulach
. Máel Coluim's first wife, Ingibiorg Finnsdottir
, was the niece of Harald III of Norway, and it has been argued by Alex Woolf
that the tradition of a battle between the Scots and Norwegians is due to a Scandinavian involvement on the side of Máel Coluim.
It is thought that, as a native of the area in which the Battle of Barry is supposed to have occurred, Boece may have used local folklore as his source. Boece is no longer regarded as a credible historical source.
In some versions of the story, Camus and his army camped prior to the battle at a location previously known as 'Norway Dykes', near Kirkbuddo
, to the north of Carnoustie, and the battle took place the day after the feast day of St Brigid
. For example, Gordon quotes Robert Maule from his 'De Antiquitate Gentis Scotorum' (1609):
This places the battle on the 2 February, St Brigid's day being the 1 February.
that existed towards the eastern boundary of Barry Parish, near the Lochty burn before the town of Carnoustie was founded in the late 18th century.
Raphael Holinshed
(ca. 1580) claimed that the bodies found in the area were those of Danish soldiers, slain in the battle:
Doubt was cast on this by Robert Dickson in 1878, when he pointed out that, while relatively high-status goods were found in some of the graves disinterred during early building work in Carnoustie, there was a lack of weapons. He also talked of the apparent presence of female skeletons. Subsequent finds pointed to the area being a domestic Pictish
Long-Cist
cemetery, including the remains of a female aged between 40 and 50 with osteoarthritis, who apparently died of tuberculosis. In contrast with Holinshed's account, the burial
s there are Christian
, found in a supine, east-west orientation.
The Danish involvement in the 'battle' centres entirely on an apparently common misinterpretation of Pictish
archaeology. For example, Boece interprets the battle scene on the Kirkyard Stone at Aberlemno
as being an account of another battle between the Scots and Danes, in the aftermath of the Battle of Barry:
This view was the norm for some time after Boece and is reflected in the Statistical Accounts
for Aberlemno. It took until the mid-19th century for it to be pointed out that not only was there no evidence that the stones were Scandinavian in origin, there was also ample evidence that the stones were Pictish/Scottish in origin. The kirkyard stone predates the Battle of Barry by three centuries and the most widely accepted interpretation is that the stone commemorates the Pictish victory at the historical Battle of Dun Nechtain in 685 AD.
The archaeological remains at Kirkbuddo, previously attributed to a Danish camp are now known to have been a temporary Roman
marching camp.
Camuston no longer exists as a village, but for location see for example the 1794 map by Ainslie. The Camuston Cross, once thought to mark the place of Camus' death, is now thought to be a late Pictish
era monument, dating from the 10th Century. It should be noted that 'Camus' is not recognisable as a Scandinavian name, and that there are earlier variants of the place name, e.g. 'Cambistown' as it is called in documents from 1425-6, which has a Celtic etymology.
A burial disinterred near the Camuston cross
was attributed by Maule as being the body of Camus:
Little information of the burial exists, but goods found in the cist were kept at Brechin Castle. These were sketched by Jervise and are typical of Bronze Age artefacts, found fairly commonly in the area.
Scottish people
The Scottish people , or Scots, are a nation and ethnic group native to Scotland. Historically they emerged from an amalgamation of the Picts and Gaels, incorporating neighbouring Britons to the south as well as invading Germanic peoples such as the Anglo-Saxons and the Norse.In modern use,...
, purportedly led by Malcolm II
Malcolm II of Scotland
Máel Coluim mac Cináeda , was King of the Scots from 1005 until his death...
, defeated a Danish
Viking
The term Viking is customarily used to refer to the Norse explorers, warriors, merchants, and pirates who raided, traded, explored and settled in wide areas of Europe, Asia and the North Atlantic islands from the late 8th to the mid-11th century.These Norsemen used their famed longships to...
invasion force in 1010 AD. Its supposed site in Carnoustie
Carnoustie
Carnoustie is a town and former police burgh in the council area of Angus, Scotland. It is situated at the mouth of the Barry Burn on the North Sea coast...
, Angus
Angus
Angus is one of the 32 local government council areas of Scotland, a registration county and a lieutenancy area. The council area borders Aberdeenshire, Perth and Kinross and Dundee City...
can be seen in early Ordnance Survey
Ordnance Survey
Ordnance Survey , an executive agency and non-ministerial government department of the Government of the United Kingdom, is the national mapping agency for Great Britain, producing maps of Great Britain , and one of the world's largest producers of maps.The name reflects its creation together with...
maps. The history of the event relies heavily on tradition
Oral tradition
Oral tradition and oral lore is cultural material and traditions transmitted orally from one generation to another. The messages or testimony are verbally transmitted in speech or song and may take the form, for example, of folktales, sayings, ballads, songs, or chants...
and it is currently considered to be apocryphal. The battle was named for the Parish
Parish
A parish is a territorial unit historically under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of one parish priest, who might be assisted in his pastoral duties by a curate or curates - also priests but not the parish priest - from a more or less central parish church with its associated organization...
of Barry, rather than the village
Barry, Angus
Barry is a small village in Angus, Scotland at the mouth of the River Tay. The recent completion of a bypass for the village on the A930 road from Dundee to Carnoustie is something that was originally planned before the Second World War. There is a water mill operated by the National Trust for...
, and was formerly thought to have taken place at the mouth of the Lochty burn, in the vicinity of the area that is now occupied by Carnoustie High Street. While the battle is not historically authentic, its romantic appeal continues to capture the popular imagination.
Account of battle
Hector Boece
Hector Boece , known in Latin as Hector Boecius or Boethius, was a Scottish philosopher and first Principal of King's College in Aberdeen, a predecessor of the University of Aberdeen.-Biography:He was born in Dundee where he attended school...
.
Boece informs us that Sueno, king of Denmark and England, unhappy with news of his army's defeat at Mortlach, ordered a naval task force to set sail for Scotland. Part of the force was to sail from Denmark, and the rest from the Thames
River Thames
The River Thames flows through southern England. It is the longest river entirely in England and the second longest in the United Kingdom. While it is best known because its lower reaches flow through central London, the river flows alongside several other towns and cities, including Oxford,...
, both under the command of Camus
Camus (folklore)
Camus, in historic literature, was a Scandinavian general dispatched to engage the Scots in battle, reportedly in the early eleventh century AD. The legendary engagement was called the Battle of Barry, and was first alluded to by Boece....
.
According to the legendary account, the army camped at St Abb's Head
St Abb's Head
St. Abb's Head is a rocky promontory at the village of St. Abbs, Berwickshire, Scottish Borders, and a National Nature Reserve administered by the National Trust of Scotland...
for several days before sailing north, landing at Lunan Bay in Angus. After sacking Montrose
Montrose, Angus
Montrose is a coastal resort town and former royal burgh in Angus, Scotland. It is situated 38 miles north of Dundee between the mouths of the North and South Esk rivers...
, the Army headed inland and razed the town of Brechin
Brechin
Brechin is a former royal burgh in Angus, Scotland. Traditionally Brechin is often described as a city because of its cathedral and its status as the seat of a pre-Reformation Roman Catholic diocese , but that status has not been officially recognised in the modern era...
to the ground. Camus received word that King Malcolm II had brought the Scots army to Dundee
Dundee
Dundee is the fourth-largest city in Scotland and the 39th most populous settlement in the United Kingdom. It lies within the eastern central Lowlands on the north bank of the Firth of Tay, which feeds into the North Sea...
and ordered the Danish army to march South, reaching the coast near to Panbride. The Scots army set camp at Barry, two miles to the West.
The two sides met and fought in the vicinity of the Lochty Burn, near where Carnoustie
Carnoustie
Carnoustie is a town and former police burgh in the council area of Angus, Scotland. It is situated at the mouth of the Barry Burn on the North Sea coast...
town centre now lies. The fighting is said to have been so fierce that the Lochty burn ran red with the blood of the fallen.
Seeing that the battle was lost, Camus fled to the hills, pursued by Robert de Keith (fictional ancestor of the Marischals of Scotland
Earl Marischal
The title of Earl Marischal was created in the peerage of Scotland for William Keith, the Great Marischal of Scotland.The office of "Marischal of Scotland" had been held heritably by the senior member of the Keith family since Hervey de Keith, who held the office of Marischal under Malcolm IV and...
), who caught up with and slew him at Brae Downie where, it is said, the Camus Cross
Camus Cross
The Camus Cross, otherwise known as the Camuston or Camustane Cross, is an Early Medieval Scottish standing stone located on the Panmure Estate near Carnoustie in Angus, Scotland...
(NO 519379) was erected in memory of him.
Written record
The first record of the battle can be found in Hector BoeceBoëcé
Boëcé is a commune in the Orne department in north-western France.-Changes in population:-See also:*Communes of the Orne department*...
's Historia Gentis Scotorum, written in 1527. Boece's work was popularised following a fairly free translation by John Bellenden
John Bellenden
John Bellenden or Ballantyne of Moray was a Scottish writer of the 16th century.He was born towards the close of the 15th century, and educated at St. Andrews and Paris. At the request of James V he translated Hector Boece's Historia Gentis Scotorum...
into Scots in 1536, and its subsequent translation into English by Raphael Holinshed
Raphael Holinshed
Raphael Holinshed was an English chronicler, whose work, commonly known as Holinshed's Chronicles, was one of the major sources used by William Shakespeare for a number of his plays....
ca. 1580. No record of the battle is found before Boece.
While George Buchanan
George Buchanan
George Buchanan may refer to:*George Buchanan , Scottish humanist*Sir George Buchanan , Scottish soldier during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms*Sir George Buchanan , Chief Medical Officer...
(ca. 1579) also mentions the battle in his work Rerum Scotarum Historia, his account borrows liberally from Boece. Boece is thought to have based much of his work on John of Fordun
John of Fordun
John of Fordun was a Scottish chronicler. It is generally stated that he was born at Fordoun, Mearns. It is certain that he was a secular priest, and that he composed his history in the latter part of the 14th century; and it is probable that he was a chaplain in the St Machar's Cathedral of...
's, Chronica Gentis Scotorum (ca. 1360). Fordun briefly mentions a battle at Mortlach but makes no mention of any at Barry:
Malcolm, thinking over the manifold blessings continually bestowed upon him by God, pondered anxiously in his mind what he should give Him in return. At length, the grace of the Holy Ghost working within him, he set his heart upon increasing the worship of God ; so he established a new episcopal see at Marthillach (Mortlach), not far from the spot where he had overcome the Norwegians, and gained the victory; and endowed it with churches, and the rents of many estates.
It is possible that Fordun's account of the Battle of Mortlach is due to a distortion of local tradition. Mortlach is nearby the site of the battle in which Máel Coluim mac Donnchada
Malcolm III of Scotland
Máel Coluim mac Donnchada , was King of Scots...
(Malcolm III) wrested power from Lulach
Lulach of Scotland
Lulach mac Gille Coemgáin was King of Scots between 15 August 1057 and 17 March 1058.He appears to have been a weak king, as his nicknames suggest...
. Máel Coluim's first wife, Ingibiorg Finnsdottir
Ingibiorg Finnsdottir
Ingibiorg Finnsdottir was a daughter of Earl Finn Arnesson and Bergljot Halvdansdottir , a niece of the Norwegian Kings Saint Olaf and Harald Hardraade. She is also known as Ingibiorg, the Earls'-Mother. The dates of her life are not certainly known.She married Thorfinn Sigurdsson, Earl of Orkney...
, was the niece of Harald III of Norway, and it has been argued by Alex Woolf
Alex Woolf
Alex Woolf is a medieval historian based at the University of St Andrews. He specialises in the history of the British Isles and Scandinavia in the Early Middle Ages, especially in relation to the peoples of Wales and Scotland. He is author of volume two in the New Edinburgh History of Scotland,...
that the tradition of a battle between the Scots and Norwegians is due to a Scandinavian involvement on the side of Máel Coluim.
It is thought that, as a native of the area in which the Battle of Barry is supposed to have occurred, Boece may have used local folklore as his source. Boece is no longer regarded as a credible historical source.
In some versions of the story, Camus and his army camped prior to the battle at a location previously known as 'Norway Dykes', near Kirkbuddo
Kirkbuddo
Kirkbuddo is a village in the county of Angus, Scotland, between the towns of Forfar and Carnoustie. Nearby lie the remains of a temporary Roman marching camp dating to the third century AD. A worn type II pictish stone was found in the kirkyard there in the mid twentieth century and has...
, to the north of Carnoustie, and the battle took place the day after the feast day of St Brigid
Brigid of Kildare
Saint Brigit of Kildare, or Brigit of Ireland , nicknamed Mary of the Gael is one of Ireland's patron saints along with Saints Patrick and Columba...
. For example, Gordon quotes Robert Maule from his 'De Antiquitate Gentis Scotorum' (1609):
About eight miles from Brechin, at Karboddo [Kirkbuddo], a place belongs to the Earl of Crawford, are to be seen the vestiges of a Danish camp, fortified with a rampart and ditch, and vulgarly called Norway Dikes; near which is the village of Panbridge [Pandbride], where anciently was a church dedicated to St Brigide, because on that saint’s day which preceded the battle, Camus, general of the Danes, pitched his camp there.
This places the battle on the 2 February, St Brigid's day being the 1 February.
Archaeological evidence
The story of the battle appears to have originated due to a romantic misinterpretation of the numerous tumuliTumulus
A tumulus is a mound of earth and stones raised over a grave or graves. Tumuli are also known as barrows, burial mounds, Hügelgrab or kurgans, and can be found throughout much of the world. A tumulus composed largely or entirely of stones is usually referred to as a cairn...
that existed towards the eastern boundary of Barry Parish, near the Lochty burn before the town of Carnoustie was founded in the late 18th century.
Raphael Holinshed
Raphael Holinshed
Raphael Holinshed was an English chronicler, whose work, commonly known as Holinshed's Chronicles, was one of the major sources used by William Shakespeare for a number of his plays....
(ca. 1580) claimed that the bodies found in the area were those of Danish soldiers, slain in the battle:
King Malcolme after he obteined this famous victorie (as before is said) at Barre, he caused the spoile of the field to be divided amongest his souldiers, according to the laws of armes; and then caused the dead bodies of the Danes to be buried in the place where the field had baene fought, and the bodies of the Scottishmen which were found dead were conveied unto the places of christian buriall, and there buried with funerall obsequies in sundrie churches and churchyards. There are seene manie bones of the Danes in those places where they were buried, there lieng bare above ground even unto this day, the sands (as it oftern chanceth) being blowen from them.
Doubt was cast on this by Robert Dickson in 1878, when he pointed out that, while relatively high-status goods were found in some of the graves disinterred during early building work in Carnoustie, there was a lack of weapons. He also talked of the apparent presence of female skeletons. Subsequent finds pointed to the area being a domestic Pictish
Picts
The Picts were a group of Late Iron Age and Early Mediaeval people living in what is now eastern and northern Scotland. There is an association with the distribution of brochs, place names beginning 'Pit-', for instance Pitlochry, and Pictish stones. They are recorded from before the Roman conquest...
Long-Cist
Cist
A cist from ) is a small stone-built coffin-like box or ossuary used to hold the bodies of the dead. Examples can be found across Europe and in the Middle East....
cemetery, including the remains of a female aged between 40 and 50 with osteoarthritis, who apparently died of tuberculosis. In contrast with Holinshed's account, the burial
Burial
Burial is the act of placing a person or object into the ground. This is accomplished by excavating a pit or trench, placing an object in it, and covering it over.-History:...
s there are Christian
Christian
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...
, found in a supine, east-west orientation.
The Danish involvement in the 'battle' centres entirely on an apparently common misinterpretation of Pictish
Picts
The Picts were a group of Late Iron Age and Early Mediaeval people living in what is now eastern and northern Scotland. There is an association with the distribution of brochs, place names beginning 'Pit-', for instance Pitlochry, and Pictish stones. They are recorded from before the Roman conquest...
archaeology. For example, Boece interprets the battle scene on the Kirkyard Stone at Aberlemno
Aberlemno
Aberlemno is a parish and small village in the Scottish council area of Angus. It is noted for three large carved Pictish stones dating from the 7th and 8th centuries AD ; the stones can be viewed at any time in spring-autumn, but are covered by wooden boxes in the winter to prevent frost damage...
as being an account of another battle between the Scots and Danes, in the aftermath of the Battle of Barry:
Ane othir cumpany of Danis, fleand in the samin maner, war slane at Abirlennon, not IV milis fra Brechin: quhare ane gret stane is ingravin with crafty letteris, to advertis the passingeris of the anciant and illuster dedis done be our eldaris aganis the Danis.
This view was the norm for some time after Boece and is reflected in the Statistical Accounts
Statistical Accounts of Scotland
The Statistical Accounts of Scotland are three series of documentary publications covering life in Scotland in the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries....
for Aberlemno. It took until the mid-19th century for it to be pointed out that not only was there no evidence that the stones were Scandinavian in origin, there was also ample evidence that the stones were Pictish/Scottish in origin. The kirkyard stone predates the Battle of Barry by three centuries and the most widely accepted interpretation is that the stone commemorates the Pictish victory at the historical Battle of Dun Nechtain in 685 AD.
The archaeological remains at Kirkbuddo, previously attributed to a Danish camp are now known to have been a temporary Roman
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
marching camp.
Camus
No written evidence of Camus exists outside of the body of work which followed Boece. The story of Camus is likely to have been a misunderstanding of the name 'Camuston', or as it is in Boece's account (as translated by Bellenden), Camustane:Quhil at last, the Danis war vincust, and Camus chasit to the montanis. The Scottis followit on him with sic fury, that he was finaly slane. In signe heirof, the place, quhare he was slane, is callit yit, Camustane.
Camuston no longer exists as a village, but for location see for example the 1794 map by Ainslie. The Camuston Cross, once thought to mark the place of Camus' death, is now thought to be a late Pictish
Picts
The Picts were a group of Late Iron Age and Early Mediaeval people living in what is now eastern and northern Scotland. There is an association with the distribution of brochs, place names beginning 'Pit-', for instance Pitlochry, and Pictish stones. They are recorded from before the Roman conquest...
era monument, dating from the 10th Century. It should be noted that 'Camus' is not recognisable as a Scandinavian name, and that there are earlier variants of the place name, e.g. 'Cambistown' as it is called in documents from 1425-6, which has a Celtic etymology.
A burial disinterred near the Camuston cross
Camus Cross
The Camus Cross, otherwise known as the Camuston or Camustane Cross, is an Early Medieval Scottish standing stone located on the Panmure Estate near Carnoustie in Angus, Scotland...
was attributed by Maule as being the body of Camus:
Nine years after I wrote that treatise, a plough turning up the ground discovered a sepulchre, believed to be that of Camus, enclosed with four great stones. Here a huge skeleton was dug up, supposed to have been the body of Camus; it appeared to have received its death by a wound on the back part of the head, seeing a considerable part of the skull was cut away, and probably by the stroke of a sword
Little information of the burial exists, but goods found in the cist were kept at Brechin Castle. These were sketched by Jervise and are typical of Bronze Age artefacts, found fairly commonly in the area.