Alpin Dungal (MacEchdach) of Scotland (abt. 778 - 834)

Born about 0778 in Fordoun, Kincardineshire, Scotland

Ancestors

Descendants

Died 20 Jul 0834 at about age 56 in Galloway, Dumfries-shire, Scotland

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Alpin (MacEchdach) of Scotland was a member of Scottish Nobility. Join: Scotland Project Discuss: Scotland

Biography

This profile needs additional research as it likely represents two different individuals. - Sorting out the two Alpin profiles

One is a King of Dal Riada and son of Eochaid. ^[1]

The other is the father of the Kenneth MacAlpin, King of Picts and name sake of the MacAlpin line of kings.^[2]

Just a note from the wikipedia.com gives the lineage:

Áed Find (Áed the White) or Áed mac Echdach (before 736–778) was king of Dál Riata (modern western Scotland and County Antrim, Ireland).

Áed was the son of Eochaid mac Echdach, a descendant of Domnall Brecc in the main line of Cenél nGabráin kings.

According to later genealogies,

Áed was the great-grandfather of Kenneth MacAlpin (Cináed mac Ailpín) who is traditionally counted as the first king of Scots.

This descent ran through Áed's son

Eochaid mac Áeda Find and

Eochaid's son Alpín mac Echdach.

The evidence for the existence of Eochaid and Alpín is late and uncompelling, and shows signs of fabrication in the High Middle Ages.

The Annals of Ulster in 768 report "Bellum i Fortrinn iter Aedh & Cinaedh": a battle in Fortriu between Áed and Cináed. This is usually read as meaning Áed Find and the Pictish king Ciniod I, who is called "Cinadhon" in the notice of his death in 775. The Annals of the Four Masters, a less reliable source, give a different version, placing this battle in Leinster and naming the victor as Cináed mac Flainn of the Uí Failgi and his defeated enemy as one Áed.

Áed's death in 778 is noted by the Annals of Ulster. He appears to have been followed as king by his brother Fergus mac Echdach.

The "Laws of Áed Eochaid's son" are mentioned by the Chronicle of the Kings of Alba in the reign of Áed's supposed great-grandson Donald MacAlpin (Domnall mac Ailpín): "In his time the Gaels with their king made the rights and laws of the kingdom [that are called the laws] of Áed Eochaid's son, in Forteviot." What these laws concerned is not known.

He is not listed in the Duan Albanach or the Annals; he appears only known from later genealogies; no evidence that he was a king in Dál Riata and he is fathered on the spurious Eochaid mac Áeda Find.

In ancient England, there were kings who broke the royal line descended from Alfred the Great. But in Scotland, all the kings named Alpin of Dalriada as their ancestor. He wasn't THE King of Scotland, but "a king in Scotland", for there were, in his time, many tribes and many kings. The country was a hard place - dense forests, wide plains, free-running rivers. The brief breath of Roman civilization, felt in England, never reached the Scottish tribes. There were no great "bath spas", no paved roads, no walled cities. Men farmed small patches of land, hunted, fished, fought each other constantly and didn't expect to live to a good old age.

The son of Eochaid (Echdach) of Dal Riada and a Pict princess, his birth year lost to memory, Alpin succeeded his father in the first months of 834, claiming the rule of Dal Riada and Kintyre. He fought hard to keep his throne, battling the Scandinavian marauders, battling the Anglo-Saxons seething northward from England, battling his own people. He died in the late summer of 834, fighting to subdue his Pict cousins, whom he sought to rule as his mother's son.

The legends, the myths, come down through time in the songs of the bards, are all we know of Alpin. Seven of the greatest Clans of Scotland - the SIOL ALPIN - claim descent from the warrior king and wear on their badges the Scots pine. The Siol Alpin clans - GRANT, GREGOR (whose motto is 'S Rioghal Mo Dhream)(royal is my race), MACAULAY, MACFIE, MACKINNON (whose motto is Cuimhnich bas Alpien)(remember the death of Alpin) MACNAB, MACQUARRIE.

For more on Alpin, read A History of the Scottish Highlands online at archive.org and The Highlanders of Scotland by William Skene. Visit the website thescotsman.scotsman.com/arts/first-king-of-the-scots.

written by Catherine Evans for WIKITREE.

Alpín mac Echdach as a King of Dál Riata appears in the Duan Albanach, which credits the years of a reign "Seven years, Dungal the impetuous, And four to Alpin, Three years, Muireadhach the good, Thirty to Aodh the high chief" - though may be the spurious intrusion of later genealogists. ^[3]

Research Notes

• Early Sources of Scottish history, p 222 gives the reign of the first Alpin as beginning in 726, citing: Tigernach Annals, Revue Celtique, vol xvii, pg. 232. As this is clearly before the birth of the second Alpin, there can be no doubt that there were two of the same name. Crawford-15512 17:55, 1 April 2021 (UTC)

Sources

1. ↑ A late tradition inserts Alpin as King of the Scots, some medieval sources making him a grandson of Áed Find; little known except as the father of Cináed Mac Alpin (Kenneth Macalpine). p: 177 in The Picts, a History by Tim Clarkson pub: Edinburgh 2016.
2. ↑ Wikipedia, (http:www.wikipedia.com: accessed 16 June 2015), "Alpín mac Echdach," http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alp%C3%ADn_mac_Echdach.
3. ↑ Wikipedia : List of kings of Dál Riata

See also:

• The Henry Project: The Ancestors of King Henry II of England, Baldwin, Stewart, ed., Farmerie, Todd, ed., Cináed mac Ailpín (Kenneth I, (Online https://fasg.org/projects/henryproject/, 2001), Alpín mac Ech[dach].
• Annals of Scotland
• Clan Munro files - Hoffman, Frederick G., Frederick G. Hoffman, Pedigree chart for Ferguard, Thane of Lochaber - 27 Jun 2006
• Wikipedia
• Foundation of Medieval Genealogy
• Burke's Peerage 99th Ed (GS #942 D22bup prefix pp. 285-86)
• Dictionary of Nat'l Biography (GS #920.042 D561n vol 30 pp 437-38)
• A Vindication of Macbeth (GS #929.2706 M288c, p. 14)
• Encyclopedia Britannica 1964 Ed (GS #032 En19b vol 13, p. 324)
• Albert F. Schmuhl, The royal line : chart prepared for the New York Stake Genealogical Board, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints centennial exhibition, March, 1936 (Salt Lake City: self published, 1929) https://familysearch.org/search/catalog/239856?availability=Family%20History%20Library. Google Books (http://books.google.com : accessed 7 June 2015). Revised 1980. Purports to go back to Adam, "Genealogical lineages shown on the chart may not always be from father to son, especially in the reigning houses of Kings; some ancient connections are based on legends, believed to be true."
• Royal Database, Author: Camelot International, http://www.camelotintl.com/royal/cgi, NS073083. Note: Good (Burke's old records). Broken link as of June 2015.
• Wikipedia : Alpín mac Echdach
• https://www.stirnet.com/genie/data/british/aa/alpin1.php

Also searched without positive results: Scots Peerage, The Complete Peerage, Royal Dau of England, and Queens of Scotland, English Princes

• ...Cináed son of Alpín son of Eochaid son of Áed Find son of Domangart son of Domnall Brecc son of Eochaid Buide son of Áedán son of Gabrán son of Domangart son of Fergus Mór ... Celt : Genealogies from Rawlinson B 502: 1696 Genelach Ríg n-Alban

Acknowledgements

• This person was created through the import of DR fam 9.ged on 14 September 2010.