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1The Gaelic Clans of Galloway- work in progress.The following is a short and a long version of research into the Gaelic clans (kindreds) of Galloway/south-west Scotland. It is based on a critique of Daphne Brooke’s theory -advanced in the 1991 Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland and her 1994 book Wild Men and Holy Places - that the medievalkingdom of Galloway had its origins in the era (seventh to ninth century) of Northumbrian dominance.The first part is a 2000 word summary of the findings of the more detailed (4500 word ) part two.

Insula Arsa, Arsbutil and Gaelic Galloway

At Buittle Castle on Thursday 29 November 1352, Edward Balliol made a grant to Sir Willam de Aldeburgh of The barony of Kells in the Glenken and the granter’s castle of Insula Arsa and thereversion of his barony of Crossmichael and Kisdale in Galloway for the yearly

reddendo

of a rose in the seasons of roses if asked for. Witnesses: MatthewMclellan; Patrick McCulloch; Roger de Mowbray, knights; Dougal McDowell,John son of Matthew Mclellan, John de Rereyck.

In 1332, Edward Balliol had claimed the Scottish throne as successor to his father KingJohn. By 1352, Edward’s kingdom had been reduced to Galloway whose Gaelic kindredsstill recognised him as their ’special lord’. Galloway’s loyalty to Edward Balliol,reflected in the witness list, was based on his descent from Fergus of Galloway via hisson Uhtred.King David II, Edward Balliol’s victorious rival, was also descended from Fergus of Galloway via Fergus’ son Gillebrigte.After Fergus’ death at Holyrood abbey in 1161, Gillebrigte and Uhtred became jointrulers of Galloway, which was now a province of Scotland. In 1174 this unstablerelationship broke down and Gillebrigte’s forces captured Uhtred on an island in the river Dee. Uhtred was blinded, had his tongue cut out and was castrated, dying of his injuriessoon afterwards. Defying both King William I of Scotland and King Henry II of England,Gillebrigte then ruled Galloway alone until his death in 1185.Uhtred’s son Lachlann (or Roland) then gained control of Galloway while Gillebrigte’s son Donnchadh became thefirst earl of Carrick which had originally been part of Galloway.The Galloway Dee has several large islands along its lower course. Richard Oram hassuggested that the island where Uhtred was captured in 1174 was Threave island.

Thissuggests that there was some type of fortification on Threave island in 1174. Movingforward to 1308 and the Bruce/ Balliol conflict, Threave island is also likely to have beenthe island that was burnt by Edward Bruce.The same year[1308], at the Feast of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, Donald of theIsles gathered together an imposing host of foot, and marched up to the river

1 Amanda Beam ,

The Balliol Dynasty 1210-1364

(Edinburgh, 2008), 3422 Richard Oram,

The Lordship of Galloway

(Edinburgh, 2000), 95

Dee. He was met by Edward of Bruce, who overcame the said Donald and allthe Gallwegians. In this struggle, Edward slew a certain knight named Roland,with many of the nobles of Galloway; and arrested their leader, the said Donald,who had taken to flight. After this, he burnt up the island.

A generation later, the struggle between the Bruces and Balliols was renewed and EdwardBalliol appears to have re-occupied the island which had been burnt in 1308..Bot in Karryk John KennedyWarrayid Gallway sturdalyHe and Alan Stewart tha twaOft did Gallways mekill waYhit the Ballol al that quhillIn Gallowa wes at the Brynt-yle.

If the

Insula Arsa

of Edward Balliol’s charter to Sir William de Aldeburgh is the Latintranscription of Wyntoun’s Brynt-yle, then it is most likely to refer to Threave island.However, in 1984, Daphne Brooke proposed an alternative. This was Burned Island onLoch Ken.

Brooke had noticed that amongst the land forfeited to the Scottish crown bythe Douglas lords of Galloway in 1455 was the £6 land of

Arsbutil

. Aware of EdwardBalliol’s charter to Sir William de Aldeburgh and its reference to the barony of Kells,Brooke appears to have concluded that Balliol’s

Insula Arsa

was in Kells parish and,finding that Burned Island on Loch Ken was in Kells, assumed that this island was bothBalliol’s

Insula Arsa

and the

Arsbutil

forfeited in 1455. Assuming that the

butil

Arsbutil

was the Old English

botl

, Brooke then used the place name to argue that Northumbrian settlement in Galloway had extended into the Glenkens.Brooke had discovered

Arsbutil

amongst the lands forfeited to the Scottish Crown byJames Douglas, the 9

earl of Douglas, in 1455. The Douglas lands in Galloway werelisted in the

Exchequer Rolls

in 1456 and had been acquired by Archibald ‘the Grim’Douglas between 1369 and 1371 and who then revived the title ‘Lord of Galloway‘.Building on her belief that Burned Island on Loch Ken was Edward Balliol’s

Insula Arsa

and also the Northumbrian

Arsbutil

, Brooke developed a theory that land holding patternsestablished by the Northumbrians in the eighth and ninth centuries were preserved by theGaelic lords of Galloway and survived, via the Douglas lordship, into the fifteenthcentury.

However,

Arsbutil

cannot have been Edward Balliol’s

Insula Arsa

and cannot be Burned

3 William Skene ed. John of Fordum’s

Chronicle of the Scottish Nation

(Edinburgh, 1872) Vol.II, 4774 Andrew Wyntoun

Orygynale Cronykil of Scotland

D.Laing ed. (Edinburgh 1872-9) Vol. III.5 Daphne Brooke ‘The Glenkens 1275-1456’

Transactions of the Dumfriesshire and Galloway Natural History and Antiquarian Society

3rd Series Vol. LIX (1984), 436 Daphne Brooke ‘Northumbrian Settlements in Galloway and Carrick’

Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland

Vol. 121 (1991), 302 and 313

Island on Loch Ken. The location variously named in the

Exchequer Rolls

Irisbutil, Erysbutil, Arsbutil, Erthbutil

and

Arthbutil

was a £6 land granted to John Cairns by JamesII in 1456.

After 1477, there is no mention of

Arsbutil

in the

Exchequer Rolls

until 1566when

Yrisubutil

is given as ‘alias

Orchartoun

’, repeated again in 1592.

Orchartoun

isOrchardton in Buittle parish. The distinctive round tower-house at Orchardton was builtsometime after 1456 by John Cairns.

This evidence shows that the £6 land of

Arsbutil

granted to John Cairns by James II in 1456 was not Burned Island in the Glenkens, butOrchardton in Buittle parish. Since Orchardton in Buittle is not an island, it cannot have been Edward Balliol’s

insula Arsa

either.If Daphne Brooke’s identification of Burned Island as a Northumbrian settlement later occupied by the lords of Galloway was incorrect, then this brings into question her claimthat elements (estates) of a Northumbrian ‘shire’ in the Stewartry survived until thefifteenth century. However, when the extent of the Norman settlements identified byChristopher Tabraham

is taken into account, a different possibility emerges.Like Brooke’s Northumbrian settlements, Tabraham’s Norman settlements are distributedacross the lowland parishes of the Stewartry, in areas of good quality arable (now dairy)farm land. Although charter evidence equivalent to David I’s grant of lands in Annandaleto the Bruces is lacking, records of gifts and donations to the Church allowed Tabrahamto connect surviving Norman mottes with 14 Anglo- Norman (mainly Cumbrian)landholders between 1150 and 1296. Significantly, these are the same sources whichBrooke relied on to provide the earliest forms of the place names used in her study. Giventhis overlap between potential Northumbrian and actual Norman settlements, it istherefore possible that some of the place names Brooke took to be Old English may have been the product of Middle English / Older Scots speakers in the twelfth and thirteenthcenturies. Alternatively, given the bias towards gifts to the Church in the sources,Brooke’s Old English place names may indicate the isolated survival of Northumbrianchapels and religious establishments rather than that of larger scale secular estates.Unfortunately, Brooke’s belief that medieval Galloway was built on Northumbrian andBritish foundations led her to dismiss Galloway’s Gaelic place-names as ’coined by the peasantry, mainly rather late’

and to minimise the importance of Galloway’s Gaelickindreds. Richard Oram has offered an alternative perspective-If doubts remain about the essentially Celtic nature of the families holdingsignificant estates in Galloway in the Middle Ages, the steadily increasing volumeof documentation from the second half of the fourteenth century onwards dispelsany lingering question. Such families surface as the long-established leaders of society, not as a resurgent Celtic underclass. What is displayed…is the continuing

Exchequer Rolls,

Vol. VI, 2628

Exchequer Rolls

, Vol. XIX, 551 and Vol. XXII, 469.9http://canmore.rcahms.gov.uk/en/site/64887/details/orchardton+tower/accessed 2 June 201110 Christopher Tabraham, ‘Norman Settlement in Galloway: Recent Fieldwork in the Stewartry’, in DavidBreeze, editor,

Studies in Scottish Antiquity

(Edinburgh, 1984)11 Daphne Brooke ‘Northumbrian Settlements in Galloway and Carrick’

Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland

Vol. 121 (1991), 312

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The Gaelic Clans of Galloway

Gaelic was the main language of Galloway south west Scotland from the tenth to the sixteenth century. This article discusses the history and importance of the region's Gaelic c... (More)

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