Chalmers, in his _Caledonia_ (i. p. 358), states dogmatically that Galloway was colonised in the eighth century by Cruithne from Ireland, and that they were followed by ‘fresh swarms from the Irish hive during the ninth and tenth centuries,’ and this statement has been accepted and repeated by all subsequent writers as if there were no doubt about it. There is not a vestige of authority for it. Galloway belonged during these centuries to the Northumbrian kingdom, and was a part of Bernicia. Bede, in narrating the foundation of Candida Casa by St. Ninian (B. iii. c. iv.), says, ‘qui locus ad provinciam Berniciorum pertinens;’ and there is abundant evidence that Galloway was under the rule of the Northumbrian kings after his time. It is antecedently quite improbable that it could have been colonised from Ireland during this time without a hint of such an event being recorded either in the Irish or the English Annals. The only authorities referred to by Chalmers consist of an entire misapplication of two passages from the Ulster Annals. He says, ‘In 682 A.D., Cathasao, the son of Maoledun, the Maormor of the Ulster Cruithne, sailed with his followers from Ireland, and landing on the Firth of Clyde, among the Britons, he was encountered and slain by them near Mauchlin, in Ayr, at a place to which the Irish gave the name of _Rathmore_, or great fort. In this stronghold Cathasao and his Cruithne had probably attacked the Britons, who certainly repulsed them with decisive success.—_Ulster An. sub an._ 682.’ In 702 the Ulster Cruithne made another attempt to obtain a settlement among the Britons on the Firth of Clyde, but they were again repulsed in the battle of Culin.—_Ib. sub an._ 702. The original text of these passages is as follows:—‘682. Bellum Rathamoire Muigeline contra Britones ubi ceciderunt Catusach mac Maelduin Ri Cruithne et Ultan filius Dicolla. 702. Bellum Campi Cuilinn in Airdo nepotum Necdaig inter Ultu et Britones ubi filius Radgaind cecidit [adversarius] Ecclesiarum Dei. Ulait victores erant.’ Now, both of these battles were fought in Ulster. Rathmore or great fort of Muigeline, which Chalmers supposes to be Mauchlin, in Ayr, was the chief seat of the Cruithnigh in Dalaraidhe, or Dalaradia, and is now called Moylinny.—See Reeves’s _Antiquities of Down and Connor_, p. 70. Airdo nepotum Necdaig, or Arduibh Eachach, was the Barony of Iveagh, also in Dalaradia, in Ulster (_Ib._ p. 348); and these events were attacks by the Britons upon the Cruithnigh of Ulster, where the battles were fought, and not attacks by the latter upon the British inhabitants of Ayrshire.