Looking south we have to the left a view of Lennox Castle, the seat of a branch of the ancient earldom of Lennox, rebuilt in the boldest style of Norman architecture, nearly 500 feet above the level of the sea, and commanding a most extensive and picturesque prospect; and a little to the west are the gentle undulations of the Craigallion table land, with the venerable Mugdock Castle, of unascertained antiquity, the scene of many bacchanalian orgies on the part of the Earl of Middleton and his associates, who, after the restoration of Charles II., were seeking to subvert the liberties of their country. But Mugdock, which to most of us suggests a magnificent water supply, has a history long anterior to the Restoration period. All the authorities agree that about the year 750 a great battle was fought at Maesydauc between the invading Picts under Talargan, one of their kings, and the Cymric Britons under their king Tendeor. After a bloody battle, the Picts were defeated and their king slain. Dr. Skene, than whom there is no higher authority, identifies this battlefield with the present Mugdock, in the parish of Strathblane. The field of battle can be traced with but little difficulty. The Cymric army was posted on the high ground on Craigallion, then part of Mugdock, above and to the east and west of the Pillar Craig, with outposts stationed on the lower plateau to the north. There they awaited the Picts, who came up Strathblane valley through Killearn from the north on their way to the interior of Cumbria or Strathclyde. Near the top of the Cuilt Brae, in a line with the Pillar Craig, there is a rock still called Cat Craig, _i.e._, Cad Craig, meaning the “Battle Rock.” In their efforts to dislodge the Cymric army, whom they could not leave in their rear, the Picts, doubtless, had penetrated thus far, and here the battle began. It was continued all over Blair or Blair’s Hill, _i.e._, “the Hill of Battle”—the rising ground on Carbeth Guthrie which commands the valley of the Blane—and Allereoch or Alreoch, _i.e._, “the King’s Rock,” was certainly so named from being the place where King Talargan fell when the defeated Picts were being driven back to the north-west. The standing stones to the south-east of Dungoyach probably mark the burial-place of Cymric or Pictish warriors who fell in the bloody battle of Mugdock.