the true localities which form the scene of them are veiled under fictitious names which it is difficult to identify, there are others where the apparent distinctness and accuracy with which the localities are given cast an air of verisimilitude over the narrative, and lead to the supposition that there must have been some historic foundation for them; but in these cases it will generally be found that they are real historic events, which belong to the historic period, but have been transported to the imaginary realm of mythic narrative by some process arising from some fancied resemblance in the names of the actors. The most striking instance of this is in the tale of the conquests in Alban by the Dathi, the second last of the pagan monarchs of Ireland. The scene is laid in Maghghirghinn, but this name we know is the original form of the name corrupted into Mearns, and belongs to a district now represented by Kincardineshire, but which formerly appears to have included part of Forfarshire south of it and Mar on the north. Here he fought the battles of Srath and Maghghirghinn, and the other names mentioned in the story can also be identified. Tuirrin, the palace of the Pictish king Feredach Finn, is no doubt the hill of Turin in the parish of Rescobie in Forfarshire, about 600 feet high, on the top of which, according to the writer in the old Statistical Account, ‘there has evidently been anciently a stronghold or place of defence, consisting of various extensive contiguous buildings, with a circular citadel of about forty yards in diameter. The situation has been well chosen, being secured by an impregnable rock in front, much like the face of Salisbury Crags, and of difficult access all around. It is now called Kemp or Camp Castle.’[141] Glenfeadha finds its modern representative in Fithie in the adjoining parish of Farnell, where too we find Gort an Chairthé corrupted into Carcary. This battle seems, however, to have been an historic event, and to have really taken place in the eighth century, for the old chronicler Tighernac records, in the year 752, the battle of Strath, in the land of Circinn or Maghghirghinn, between the Pictones, in which Bruidhi, son of Maelchon, was slain.[142] There, by an anachronism which it is difficult to explain, the well-known Bruidhe mac Maelchon, who died 200 years before, takes the place of Feredach Finn. This battle really took place in the reign of the great Pictish king Angus, son of Fergus; but we find in 763, eleven years after this battle was fought, the Pictish throne occupied by Cinadon, son of Feredach, and, at the same time, the prince who ruled over Dalriada, after its conquest by the Pictish monarch, is Muredach ua Dathi, or grandson of Dathi. The same battle appears a century later in Hector Boece’s fictitious narrative, where the Scots under their king Alpin defeat and slay on the same spot Feredach, king of the Picts.