The book Arran; - Cook Clan

10 THE BOOK OF ARRAN
numerous and best placed. This was the work of Fergus
MacErc about the beginning of the sixth century (503 a.d.),
and of this new kingdom on the western flank of Pictland,
Arran was undoubtedly an outlying part. ' Lamlash ' shows
that when the Norse came they found a Gaelic-speaking
people in possession.^
The history of the Dalriadic kingdom, during the three
centuries and a half of its independent existence,^ sums
itself up in three general lines of activity—resistance to
Pictish invasion, alternating with attacks upon that people
by way of southern Perthshire, that became more serious
and penetrating as their domestic quarrels became more
decisive and bitter ; expansion on the seaboard northwards,
which up to Lochbroom became Argyll, Oirir-Gaidheal, ' the
coast-land of the Gael,' so that to the Norse the Minch was
' Scotland Firth '
;
and a contention, similar to that among
the Picts, between two stocks of the descendants of Fergus
for the ruling power. In this dynastic rivalry Arran, it may
be taken, would stand with the Cinel Gabhran,^ the elder
branch, which had the Clyde portion of Dalriada, as against
the Cinel Lorn, from a younger son in the north. And it is
to this period, when the Gael was making good his footing
on the west as well as fighting out his internal politics, that
we may allot the several forts on the Arran coast ; the coast
of Kintyre up to the nearest approach opposite Dougarie
(Dubhgharadh) and the whole outer coast round Dalriada
are studded with these forts, as also are Bute and the
seaboard. Arran, in fact, is on the line of a frontier ; across
the water were now the Britons of Strathclyde ; Arran was
of the Gaelic kingdom. The British or Cymric occupation
came as near as the Cumbraes but apparently no farther.
> See p. 69.
2 This in refusal of Skene's analysis, adopted in current Scottish histories, but
unsatisfactory.
3 Oinel or Cineal, ' offspring, clan.' Gabhran and Lorn are two of the sons of Fergus.