The Highlanders of Scotland - Clan Strachan Society

CHAP. V] OF SCOTLAND 263
by the name of Abthniius de Dull. From this, therefore, we
learn the very singular fact that that race which gave a long
line of Kings to Scotland, were originally lords of that district
in Atholl, lying between Strathtay and Rannoch, which was
afterwards termed the Abthania de Dull.
Besides the Abthanrie of Dull we find that in the reign of
Alexander I., nearly the whole of the present
district of
Braedalbane was in the crown, and these facts leave little
room to doubt that the royal family were originally, before
their accession to the throne, lords of the greater part of
Atholl. Duncan, however, succeeded to the throne in 1034,
and at that period the whole of Atholl was under the dominion
of the Gallgael. Of this race, then, the descendants of Crinan
must unquestionably be, and this is singularly corroborative
of the title of Senneschallus visiilaruui, likewise given to
Crinan by Fordun, and which must have reached Fordun
from the same source with that of Abthanus de Dull, and is
consequently equally authentic. The exact connexion of
Crinan with the family of the Gallgael kings, it would of course
be difficult to point out, but it may not be improper to mention
that there exists a very old tradition to which other circum-
stances lead mc to attach considerable credit, viz., that Crinan
was the son of Kenneth, Thane of the Isles,' and if this be
true, he would thus be the brother of Suibne, the last regulus
of the Gallgael, and by the operation of the Gallic law of
tanistry, Duncan might, during his life, have been at the head
of this numerous and powerful tribe.
By Edgar, the whole of Atholl, with the exception of
Braedalbane, was erected into an earldom and bestowed upon
Aladach, the son of his father's brother,^ and on his death,
towards the end of the reign of David I., it was obtained by
Malcolm, the son of Duncan, the eldest son of Malcolm Ken-
from the
more, 3 either because the exclusion of that family
throne could not deprive them of the original property of the
'Ancient History of the Drummonds. Ciiarfulary of Dunfermline. In that
.. •
ri 1
o chartf-r Malcolm implies that he was
-
Orkneyinga Saga, , , , ^ , , .
aescended or more than one king
•"
That Malcolm was the son of Dun- buried at Dunfermline, which is only
can is proved by a charter in the possible on this supposition.