Dungad, called also Dungal, was a native chieftain, Maormor, or
“Jarl,” in the north-east corner of Caithness, who seems to have
considered the policy of conciliation preferable to that of
resistance, judging from the intimate relations he formed with the
foreigners, marrying the daughter of one, and giving his daughter in
marriage to another, of the chiefs of the invaders. His _bœ_ or hamlet
of residence became on this account so well known to the Norsemen,
that they named the district of Dungalsbae (now Duncansbay) by it, and
spoke of the headland (now Duncansbay Head) on which it was situated,
as Dungalsness, or Duncan’s cape. The supposed remains of his castle
were seen by Pennant in 1796, and are described by him as the ruins of
a circular building, in all probability one of the “burghs” or
circular towers so common in the north of Scotland, which seem to have
been the defensive habitations of the native Celtic or Pictish
population of the period between the 6th and 9th or 10th centuries. It
is now a green mound. From the Session Records of the parish it
appears that the district retained its ancient name of “Dungasby” down
to the beginning of the last century, when it first appears as
Duncansbay, and to this day it is called “Dungsby” by the older
inhabitants. The name of the adjacent district of Canisbay, now
applied to the whole parish, is similarly derived from _Conan’s bæ_.
It appears between 1223 and 1245 as Canenesbi (Sutherland Charters),
and in Blaeu’s Atlas, the MS. maps of which were drawn (_circa_ 1620),
by Mr. Timothy Pont, the minister of the adjacent parish of Dunnet, it
is marked Conansbay. These two, Duncan and Conan, are the only native
chieftains of Caithness at the time of the Norse invasion whose names
have come down to us, probably because they were the only ones who
held friendly relations with the invaders.
Footnote 234:
In the Saga of Olaf, Tryggvi’s son, it is said that Earl Sigurd lay at
Asmundarvag, now Osmundwall, in the south end of the island of Hoy.
There is a place called Roray on the west side of the island, which
might be the ancient Rörvag.
Footnote 235:
Munch (Chronicon Manniæ, p. 46) alludes to the mistake so common among
the historians of Scotland to confound the _two_ Malcolms, and to make
one of them, as if one Malcolm only (Malcolm II.) reigned from 1004 to
1034. Though this theory has been ingeniously supported from a Norse
point of view, it is at variance with the concurrent testimony of the
early Scottish Chronicles. The Saga is the only authority for this
marriage; but admitting its testimony on this point to be unassailable
scarcely necessitates the repudiation of the authority of the Scottish
Chronicles on the question of the succession. (Compare Skene’s
Highlanders, chap. 5; Robertson’s Scotland under her Early Kings, vol.
ii. p. 447; and Fordun (Skene’s edition), text and notes.)
Footnote 236:
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