The Battle of Strathcarron

The Battle of Strath Carron, the Cynwydion, and Chronology.

Domnall Brecc, King of Dal Riata

Another curious interpolation (though it may not be so curious after all) within Y Gododdin comes in the form a quite evocative stanza telling of the Battle of Strathcarron, that post-dates Catraeth by close to sixty years.

I saw an array that came from Kintyre,
who brought themselves as a sacrifice to a holocaust.
I saw a second who had come down from their settlement,
who had been roused by the grandson of Neithon.
I saw mighty men who came with dawn.
And it was Domnall Brecc's head that the ravens gnawed.

The stanza is obviously meant in praise of the victor, but who was the leader of the ‘second’ array, this grandson of Neithon? Luckily for us, The Annals of Ulster happen to record the year Domnall died, and elaborate on how and where.

Afterwards Domnall Brec was slain at the end of the year, in December, in the battle of Srath Caruin, by Hoan, king of the Britons. He reigned 15 years.

-642AD