Alba Historical

 Battle of Dunnichen This piece is a follow-up to  King Bidei The Picts have left a unique record of the battle in the form of a magnificent piece of sculpture.  The so-called Battle Stone in Aberlemno kirkyard - about four miles north of Dunnichen-is a Pictish stone, 2.3 metres high. It has a cross in heavy relief on one side and Pictish symbols on the other, above a vivid portrayal of warriors in battle. There are several good reasons for thinking that the scenes on the Aberlemno Stone depict the Battle of Dunnichen. Experts date it to the early 8th century, within a few decades of the event. It is not far from the site of the battle. And one set of warriors on the stone is wearing helmets with long nose-guards of a type known to have existed among the Anglo-Saxons. It is a remarkable record of the battle, showing superb details of weapons and methods of fighting – the Pictish equivalent of the Bayeux Tapestry. The Aberlemno Battle Stone has four separate images from th...

 Our forgotten Pictish King The Battle of Dunnichen If the Pictish army led by King Bridei had lost to the invading Angles at the Battle of Dunnichen, then Scotland as we know it today simply would not exist. It was one of the most important battles of our early medieval history, and this is reflected in the fact that we know more about it than any other single event in 7th century Scotland. The Picts destroyed King Egfrith's Anglian army from Northumbria on May 20, 685, and their resounding victory helped form the political landscape of northern Britain for 200 years. They recovered territory, including Fife, which the Angles had occupied for almost 30 years. There had been a Pictish rebellion. against Northumbrian control in 672, which had ended in bloody defeat. Northumbrian sources luridly, though probably with exaggeration, tell us that the victors were able to cross dry-shod over two rivers, so full were they of the bodies of slain Picts. These rivers were the Carron and the ...