Many thanks Alastair - I'm hoping one day to write a book on early medieval Moray, as the lack of written sources means nobody has really had a go at it. I think it's possible to produce something by drawing all of the evidence (archaeology, sculpture, place-names, landscape, inscriptions, texts and material culture) together and examining it as a whole. But that will be after the PhD!
I’ve never bought the Watson/Skene early Gaelicisation of the Findhorn valley. And there’s been a number of card houses built on those foundations. A new, better explanation is long due. I look forward to it!
I think your instincts are right. My MA diss (which wasn't on Sueno's Stone in the end) tentatively proposed that lowland Moray between the Hardmuir and the Spey remained Pictish in elite self-identity, and possibly language, for longer than is generally thought. Maybe into the tenth century. I'll definitely be looking into it more for the PhD.
Congratulations on finishing your MA, a huge accomplishment in itself, and being accepted into the PhD program! Holy cow, I'm in awe. Way to go, Fiona! 🎉🥳🎊
For what it's worth I have a suspicion (yet to be properly researched and backed up with sources) that Boath may have been the "New Eren". There doesn't appear to have been anything "new" built on the motte but the name Auldearn continues to appear in charters. As a relatively significant place I'd expect there to have been a seat of some sorts, but moved away from the motte (as was common on other properties). Boath is marked as a castle on Pont which makes me think that it may have been the new seat, the New Eren, but later split off and renamed.
Nicholas Bogdan believed Vlerin / Ulerin was the same place as Auldearn, which might make more sense etymologically (Ul / Aul Eren), however both Aldhen' and Vlerin appear in a charter of 1238 suggesting that they're different places. There's a reference in Archie Duncan's Scotland: the Making of the Kingdom on p190 of the paperback version which states that Vlerin was in the bailiwick of Forres rather than Nairn in 1238, but I haven't looked into this either yet.
Thanks very much for this, Andy. Yes, Auldearn definitely continues - it was a large parish throughout the Middle Ages and its church had quite a cachet as it was the seat of the deacon of the cathedral of Moray, with the chapel of Nairn dependent on it. For whatever reason, Auldearn didn't take off as a trading burgh, though. The street layout doesn't look like the other burghs (Inverness, Nairn, Forres, Elgin) and I wonder if it ever really got off the ground.
I agree, Boath could have become the site of a new lord's residence, and thus plausibly the 'new Eren' if the 'old Eren' referred simply to the castle and not the settlement. I do think Boath is an older name, though, referring to the church (which surely has seventh or eighth-century origins, if not older). But there are other candidates around - the thanage of Moyness was in Auldearn parish and may have been the local seat of lordship in the central Middle Ages.
Re. Ulern/Vlerin, charter #5 in the Records of the Monastery of Kinloss shows without a doubt that 'Ulern' was adjacent to Burgie and is therefore Blervie not Auldearn. Duncan was referring to charter #40 in the Moray Registrum, which indeed lists 'Vlerin' in the bailiwick of Forres, so Ulern and Vlerin are surely the same place (i.e. Blervie) and Auldearn is a red herring.
Congrats on the PhD. Well deserved as you are already adding valuable scholarship to your period and to Moray 👏👏👏
Many thanks Alastair - I'm hoping one day to write a book on early medieval Moray, as the lack of written sources means nobody has really had a go at it. I think it's possible to produce something by drawing all of the evidence (archaeology, sculpture, place-names, landscape, inscriptions, texts and material culture) together and examining it as a whole. But that will be after the PhD!
I’ve never bought the Watson/Skene early Gaelicisation of the Findhorn valley. And there’s been a number of card houses built on those foundations. A new, better explanation is long due. I look forward to it!
I think your instincts are right. My MA diss (which wasn't on Sueno's Stone in the end) tentatively proposed that lowland Moray between the Hardmuir and the Spey remained Pictish in elite self-identity, and possibly language, for longer than is generally thought. Maybe into the tenth century. I'll definitely be looking into it more for the PhD.
Congratulations on finishing your MA, a huge accomplishment in itself, and being accepted into the PhD program! Holy cow, I'm in awe. Way to go, Fiona! 🎉🥳🎊
Awwww, thanks Rebecca! I'm absolutely over the moon, as you might imagine!
Fascinating as ever Fiona - and congratulations on the PhD acceptance!
Many thanks Anton, and thanks for reading my ramblings!
For what it's worth I have a suspicion (yet to be properly researched and backed up with sources) that Boath may have been the "New Eren". There doesn't appear to have been anything "new" built on the motte but the name Auldearn continues to appear in charters. As a relatively significant place I'd expect there to have been a seat of some sorts, but moved away from the motte (as was common on other properties). Boath is marked as a castle on Pont which makes me think that it may have been the new seat, the New Eren, but later split off and renamed.
Nicholas Bogdan believed Vlerin / Ulerin was the same place as Auldearn, which might make more sense etymologically (Ul / Aul Eren), however both Aldhen' and Vlerin appear in a charter of 1238 suggesting that they're different places. There's a reference in Archie Duncan's Scotland: the Making of the Kingdom on p190 of the paperback version which states that Vlerin was in the bailiwick of Forres rather than Nairn in 1238, but I haven't looked into this either yet.
Thanks very much for this, Andy. Yes, Auldearn definitely continues - it was a large parish throughout the Middle Ages and its church had quite a cachet as it was the seat of the deacon of the cathedral of Moray, with the chapel of Nairn dependent on it. For whatever reason, Auldearn didn't take off as a trading burgh, though. The street layout doesn't look like the other burghs (Inverness, Nairn, Forres, Elgin) and I wonder if it ever really got off the ground.
I agree, Boath could have become the site of a new lord's residence, and thus plausibly the 'new Eren' if the 'old Eren' referred simply to the castle and not the settlement. I do think Boath is an older name, though, referring to the church (which surely has seventh or eighth-century origins, if not older). But there are other candidates around - the thanage of Moyness was in Auldearn parish and may have been the local seat of lordship in the central Middle Ages.
Re. Ulern/Vlerin, charter #5 in the Records of the Monastery of Kinloss shows without a doubt that 'Ulern' was adjacent to Burgie and is therefore Blervie not Auldearn. Duncan was referring to charter #40 in the Moray Registrum, which indeed lists 'Vlerin' in the bailiwick of Forres, so Ulern and Vlerin are surely the same place (i.e. Blervie) and Auldearn is a red herring.