Battle of Barry
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The Battle of Barry is a legendary battle in which the Scots, supposedly led by Malcolm II, defeated a Danish invasion force in 1010 AD. Carnoustie, Angus was thought for many years to be the site of the . 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 is said 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.
The legend states that the Danish army, Led by Camus, General of King Sueno, landed at Lunan Bay. From there they besieged Brechin, raising it to the ground. They marched South, camping at Kirkbuddo, at the site that was known colloquially as 'Norway Dykes' (NO490443). The Scots army gathered on Barry Sands (the sandy part of Carnoustie beach, to the West of the Lochty burn) and lay in wait for the Danes. The Danes marched through Panbride and turned West, their objective being to take Dundee. As the Danes crossed the Lochty Burn, the Scots ambushed them. The Scots defeated the Danes, who suffered losses so great that the the Lochty burn ran red with blood for three days.[1] The legend gave rise to the rhyme:
Lochty, Lochty is red, red, red,
For it has run three days wi' bluid
As Alexander Gordon put it:
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. Not far from hence is the village of Barry, where a mighty battle was fought betwixt the Danes and Scots, with great slaughter on both sides, near the mouth of a small rivulet called Lough-tay [Lochty Burn]. There many little artificial mounts, or tumuli, are still to be seen, within which were buried the bodies of those slain in the fight; and because the soil thereabouts is sandy, the wind blowing away the sand frequently discovers bones of a size much exceeding those of our age.[2]
The leader of the Danes, Camus, fled the battlefield, pursued by Robert de Keith (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.[3]
Near this is Camus-Town [Camuston], a village belonging to the barons of Panmure, and noted for the death of Camus, slain there, it being a mile from the field of battle. There to this day is to be seen an obelisk. . . .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 skill was cut away, and probably by the stroke of a sword.[2]
The camp at Kirkbuddo is currently thought to be a temporary Roman marching camp [4]
No record of the supposed battle is found before that written by Hector Boece in the sixteenth century.[5] The legend appears to have originated due to a romantic misinterpretation of the numerous tumuli that existed towards the eastern boundary of Barry Parish, near the Lochty burn before the town was founded,[6] a number of which were disinterred during early building work.[5][7] These were later re-interpreted as being from an Iron Age Long-Cist cemetery.[8] The story of Camus is likely to have been a misunderstanding of the name 'Camuston Cross', which referred to the monument in reference to the village of Camuston, close to which it stood.[9] The Camuston Cross is now thought to be a late Pictish era monument, dating from the 10th Century.[10]
[edit] References
- ^ see for example Small (1842)
- ^ a b Gordon, A. (1726) Itinerarium Septentirional p 154-155. Quoted in: Wylie, J.A. (1886) History of the Scottish Nation, Vol. III, Chapter 10, Hamilton, Adams & Co, Edinburgh, www.electricscotland.com; retrieved 3 September 2008.
- ^ The Camus Cross, www.monikie.org.uk; retrieved 2 September 2008
- ^ Kirkbuddo camp, www.roman-britain.org; retrieved 3 September 2008.
- ^ a b Dickson, R. (1878) Notice of the discovery of stone coffins at Carnoustie, Forfarshire, Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland 12, 611-615, ads.ahds.ac.uk; retrieved 2 September 2008. Dickson reports three long cist burials disinterred in 1878. The burials were aligned with feet pointing to the east, signifying Christian burial and, despite Gordon's (1726) assertions about size, gives a femur size of 18" (46 cm), suggesting a height of 5'6" (1.67 m) for the largest skeleton. Dickson also refers to 30 cists unearthed in 1810 during the construction of what is now the Erskine United Free Church. He also points out the lack of weapons, casting doubt on Boece's account of the Battle of Barry.
- ^ Sim, D. (1791) First Statistical Accounts for Scotland, Parish of Barrie (County of Forfar), www.monikie.org.uk; retrieved 1 September 2008
- ^ Lewis, S. (1846), A Topographical Dictionary of Scotland, 'Cabrach-Carnoustie', www.british-history.ac.uk; retrieved 1 September 2008
- ^ Coutts, H. (1971) Two long cists at the High Street, Carnoustie, Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland 103, 233-235, archaeologydataservice.ac.uk; retrieved 2 September. Coutts reports two long cist burials found by workmen during excavations in the 1960s. The burials were again in an approximately East-West orientation, with feet facing East. One was of a male aged approximately 25-30 with a height of 5'4" (163.9 cm), the other of a female aged between 40 and 50 with a height of 5'4" (162.8 cm). The female had advanced osteoarthritis possibly died of tuberculosis.
- ^ Camuston no longer exists, but for location see for example Ainslie, J. (1794) Map of the county of Forfar or Shire of Angus, www.nls.uk; retrieved 2 September 2008
- ^ Walker, B. and Ritchie, G. (1996) Exploring Scotland's Heritage: Fife, Perthshire and Angus. 2nd Edition. HMSO, Edinburgh.
