Mid-Argyll Theme
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Understanding Dunadd's Summit
The fortress of Dúnadd
stands at the south end of the Kilmartin valley,
overlooking the ancient and archaeologically rich
landscape.
Power and
prestige
We should not think of this dún
primarily as a residence, in the sense of a
permanent settlement where the king of Dál
Riata might live and rule. In our period kings
were obliged to travel. Part of the exercise of
royal power was the frequent movement of the king
from one area of his dominion to another. He and
his retinue would be fed by the local chiefs and
hospitallers, and this in itself was part of the
expression of a king's authority, a way of
collecting his dues.
Dunadd was therefore an occasional settlement of
the king, even if it was also in some sense his
primary seat. But it had other functions, too. It
was an industrial centre, for example. The
plentiful brooch-moulds found here reflect the
importance of metalwork, especially in gold and
silver, or plated bronze, which the king of
Dál Riata controlled. He distributed such
goods to his client chiefs or under-kings. By this
gift, their lordship was enhanced over their own
clients, and their subjection to the king was
likewise affirmed.
Other luxury goods would have enhanced the
king's prestige, and Dunadd has no shortage of
these. It imported minerals from the Mediterranean,
Cornish tin, and European wines drunk from Gaulish
glassware to wash down meat with foreign
spices.
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Royal
Ritual
Even more striking than the luxury
goods is the apparent use of Dunadd as a
centre of rituals of Dál
Riata royal power.
The fort is situated in ambiguous
territory. Cenél nGabráin,
usually the most powerful of the ruling
kindreds, held the land to the south of
Dunadd, while another, Cenél
Loairn, occupied territory to the north
and achieved overlordship of Dál
Riata from 697 to 736 AD.
Dunadd seems to be on the border-land
between these two. Perhaps its central
position reflects a lordship over both
territories, so that whoever was king of
Dunadd would be over-king of all the
cenéla of Dál Riata.
It is this kingship which was
legitimated on the summit of Dunadd by
rituals of inauguration.
Some of the basic 'equipment' for these
rituals is still visible on the site.
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The three main
Cenéla of Dál Riata, with
Dunadd
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The most striking is the footprint carved into
the rocky outcrop, near which is carved a deep
basin.
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Such footprints are known elsewhere,
both in Ireland and in Pictland, in
association with royal sites, and various
early modern accounts of king-making
rituals make it clear what this
footprint in Dunadd was for. The king
would place his foot in the footprint as
part of the rite, symbolically uniting
himself to the land he was to rule, the
land which he could see from the summit of
Dunadd. The basin may have been used for
libations of some sort.
On the same rocky outcrop, someone has
carved an ogham
inscription.
Though for a long time no one has ben
able to make sense of this inscription, Dr
Katherine Forsyth has recently offered a
partial reading, offering an Old Gaelic
personal name: Finn Manach, 'Finn the
monk', or perhaps Finn of the
túath of Fer Manach.
The outline of a boar is also carved in
the same spot, in a style that is clearly
Picitsh. There has been some suggestion
that it was carved here in 736 when the
king of Picts, Ungus
son of Uurguist, devastated Dál
Riata and seized Dunadd, as the Annals of
Ulster record.
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The photo shows the basin
in the foreground, while the carved
footprint, facing out over the valley, is
seen on the further rocky
surface.
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However, it is possible that there were already
Picts among the Dál Riata lords, just as we
know there were Gaels who held land and power in
Pictland. Perhaps the boar carving was made by or
for such a Pictish 'immigrant'.
Or, since the boar is carved close to a symbol
of Gaelic power - the footprint - we might read the
pair of symbols as a sign of some kind of union
between Gaels and Picts, who were finally united
in the ninth century.
The ogham carving, near the
footprint
Sacred
Landscapes
Many Iron Age and early Medieval royal sites are
located in areas rich with far older monuments.
Tara in Ireland springs to mind, where Celtic kings
celebrated inauguration rites surrounded by
monuments which include the so-called 'Mound of the
Hostages' which had been there since before 2,000
BC.
Similarly, the Pictish power centre of Forteviot
was built among ancient burials and neolithic
henges (probably still standing when the Picts were
using the site), where the monuments create what we
might call a 'sacred landscape', lending an aura of
ritual power to the later Celtic royal site.
Dunadd follows this pattern, looking down from
the summit to the linear cemetery and the
surrounding monuments - cairns, standing stones and
henges. Perhaps kings were felt to have inherited
some potency from these symbols which surrounded
their newly built power centres.
References
- RCAHMS, Argyll 6, pp. 149-59
- Lane and Campbell (2001)
- Forsyth (200x), in Lane and Campbell, pp.
264-72
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