After the Pictish overthrow of the Puppet king Drust, the King of Northumbria Ecgfrith, struck back with devastating force. The Picts were massacred near the town of Grangemouth, where the Carron & Avon rivers meet. So many Picts died, the Northumbrians were able to walk across both rivers dryshod. following the battle, the Picts were reduced to slavery and subject to the yoke of captivity for the next 14 years.
Ecgfirth’s Angle forebears were descended from Germanic tribes who had settled in England from the mid-5th Century onwards and subsequently rose to become the ruling classes. They had spread northward, conquering the Gododdin, the ancient people who had once inhabited the lands south of the River Forth, including Din Eidyn or Edinburgh as it is now called. “bold and belligerent, Ecgfirth was not a man to take advice easily.”
The Romans referred to Picts as the Picti, the painted people, with a warrior caste who allegedly fought naked in battle.
As Ecgfrith tightened his grip, the Picts made Bridei mac Bili their King. His father appears to have been King of Alt Clut and therefore from the British Kingdom of Strathclyde but Bridei’s grandfather was Nechtan, of Fortrui and therefore a Pict. His mother was a Deiran from Northumbria. This Bridei had the blood of most of the important royal dynasties in the north, coursing through his veins. Ecgfrith would have been his cousin. Indeed, the two men may have known each other personally as young men and it is possible that Bridei initially relied on upon the patronage of Northumbria to secure his hold in Fortrui. However Brude came to power, it is clear that he was expected to send tribute south to Northumbria. Brude, however, had no intention of doing so and, although it seems he initially did send tribute in the form of cattle and grain, this practice ended soon after he had consolidated his power.
Ecgfrith led an army of 300 cavalry to lay waste to the Picts, who pretended to retreat into the mountains. As the Angles chased a Pictish warband in Strathmore, near Fort Dunnottar, they came over a hill and were trapped between a loch and the Pictish army.
The Angle forces found themselves between the Pictish army on the high ground of Dunnichen Hill, who are said to have numbered in the thousands, and the marshes of the lake Nectan. Ecgfrith, realizing his dangerous position, opted for a full-scale charge of his cavalry uphill to break the Picts' line in the center. Brude, however, fell back, feigning retreat, and then turned and held the line. He repulsed the charge, sending the Angles reeling in retreat back down the hill and toward the marshes; then he counter-charged.
Ecgfrith and most of his army were killed. The River Forth became the border once more, and the Angles never returned.
The Pictish victory strengthened the men of Fortrui’s place within the Pictish Powerhouse. Bridei’s battlefield triumph was evidence of his legitimate claim to the overlordship of the lands between Dunottar and Dundurn. Thus Bridei was able to extend his authority over the ‘innumerable nations’ of the Picts in the lowlands. By the time Bede wrote his Historia in the 730s, Pictland was considered to be a single kingdom. The emergence of a single kingdom of the Picts is a direct result of the victory in 685 and the most significant outcome of the Battle of Dún Nechtain.
Without it, the nation of Scotland may never have come to be.
lyrics
The slaughter of the Pictish men
In Grangemouth where the rivers met
The bodies clogged the rushy fen
Northumbrians did not get wet.
Ecgfirth thought his rule was safe
The Gododdin his fathers slew
Belligerent and bold he chafed
When tribute came not from King Brude
But this man is the King we chose
Northumbria he won’t obey
And to the cavalry we close
At Lin Garan, victory today
Chorus
We gather now near Heron’s Lake
The time to fight has come again
No more will we our lands forsake
This time the dryshod are our men
The Son of Oswiu marched secure
With cavalry and army strong
‘Til o’er the hill near Dunnottar
The high ground swarmed with Pictish throngs
Ecgfrith was forced into a charge
And Beli-son feigned to give way
Northumbria came quick to purge
Outsmarted then by King Bredei
Chorus
We gather now near Heron’s Lake
The time to fight has come again
No more will we our lands forsake
This time the dryshod are our men
The over-eager Saxon king
Was caught off-guard by counter-charge
Of Dun Nechtan the bards will sing
Where Breidi Pictish lands enlarged
At Dun Nechtan near Badenoch
The mountain passes twist and turn
And Ecgfirth’s men, backs to the loch
Will fight and bleed and die and burn
Chorus
We gather now near Heron’s Lake
The time to fight has come again
No more will we our lands forsake
This time the dryshod are our men
This land our children will defend
The mere, the loch, the dun, the sod
The River Forth is ours again
And we will ever go dryshod
So when your children’s children ask
We birthed fair Scotland with our blood
Our memories will always last
And we will forever go dryshod
credits
released February 27, 2021
Composed and performed by Drew Nicholson
I'm a poet, a singer/songwriter (more on the writer than the singer), and I have a podcast that enables people to tell
stories about people. I'm also part of an Irish music band Bardic Storm.
Father, Husband, and failed guitar player....more
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