A history of the Highlands and of the Highland clans : with an ...

WARS BETWEEN THE SCOTS AND SAXONS
reigned two and twenty years, and, as we luive already observed, v as
elain in a battle with the Picts under Dridei tlieir king
Conal, the son of C'omgal tiien succeeded in five hundi'ed and fifty-
seven, and closed a reign of fourteen years in five hundred and seventy-
one ; but a civil war ensued between Aidan, the son of Ga\iran, and
Dunclia, the son of Conal, for the vacant crown, the claim to Jihith
was decided on the bloody field of Loro, in five hundred and seventy-
five, where Duncha was slain. Aidan, the son of Gauran, was formally
inaugurated by St. Columba in lona, in five hundred and seventy-four
Some ye.ars thereafter Aidan assisted tlie Cumbrian-Britons against the
Saxons. He defeated the latter at Fethanlea, on Stanmore, in Nortliumberland,
in five hundred and eightj' four, and again in five hundred
and ninety, at the battle of Leithredh, in which his two sons, Arthur
and Eocha-fin, were slain, with upwards of three hundred of his men;
a cirenmstance which renders the supposition probable, that the armies
of those times were far from numerous, and that the conflicts partook
little of the regular system of modern warfare. Another battle was
fought at Kirkinn in five hundred and ninety-eight, between Aidan and
the Saxons, in which he appears to have had the disadvantage and in
which he lost Doraangart his son ; and in six hundred and three he was
finally defeated by the Northumbrians under ^thilfrid at the battle of
Dawstane in Roxburghshire. The wars with the Saxons weakened
the power of the Dalriads very considerably, and it was not till after a
long period of time that they again ventured to meet the Saxons in the
field.
During a short season of repose Aidan, attended by St. Columba,
went to the celebrated council of Drum-keat in Ulster, in the year
five hundred and ninety. In this council he claimed the principality of
Dalriada, the land of his fathers, and obtained an exemption from do-
ing homage to the kings of Ireland, which his ancestors, it would appear,
had been accustomed to pay. Aidan died in six hundred and five, at
the advanced age of eighty, and was buried in the church of Kil-keran,
the ruins of which are still to be seen in the midst of Campbelton.
Aidan «as succeeded in the throne by his son Eocha-bui, or Eocha
the yellow-haired, who reigned sixteen years. In six hundred and
twenty he got involved in a war with the Cruithne of Ulster. His son
Kenneth-Caer, the tanist or heir apparent, was appointed to the command
of the army destined to act against these Cruithne. A battle
was fought at Ardcoran in which Kenneth was successful, and in which
Tiachna, the son of the Ultonian monarch was slain. The same year
was distinguished by another battle gained over the same people at
Kenn, by Donal-breac, the son of Eocha'-bui. Eocha' died soon
afterwards, when his son Kenneth-cear, or the awkward, assumed the
monarchical dignity; but he was killed in a battle against the Irish
Cruithne. at Fedhaevin, in six hundred and twenty-one, after a short
reign of three months.
Ferchar, the son of Eogan, the first of the ra