MACOSQUIN, COLERAINE
I've already cast some doubt on the legitimacy of the Camlan location in NW Wales. Please see
for details on that.
But I've recently found something else suspicious about the Camlan entry by comparing it with entries in the Irish Annals.
First, a brief recap of what the Irish sources have to say on the death of Artur son of Aedan.
The Life of Adamnan has Artur and his brother Eochaid Find persih fighting the Miathi. But the Annals of Tigernach has Artur die with several brothers in Circenn. Domangart is one of those, said in Adamnan to have died fighting the Saxons. Bannerman (in his STUDIES IN THE HISTORY OF DALRIADA) has placed the Miathi battle c. 590, and the Saxon battle c. 596.
Caput 8: De Filiis Aidani Regis Sancti Columbae Prophetia
ALIO in tempore ante supra dictum bellum Sanctus Aidanum regem interrogat de regni successore. Illo se respondente nescire quis esset de tribus filiis suis regnaturus, Arturius, an Echodius Find, an Domingartus, Sanctus consequenter hoc profatur modo: Nullus ex his tribus erit regnator; nam in bellis cadent ab inimics trucidandi: sed nunc si alios juniores habes ad me veniant, et quem ex eis elegerit Dominus regem, subito super meum irruet gremium. Quibus accitis, secundum verbum Sancti Echodius Buide adveniens in sinu ejus recubuit. Statimque Sanctus eum osculatus benedixit, et ad patrem ait: Hic est sperstes, et rex post te regnaturus, et filii ejus post eum regnabunt. Sic omnia post, suis temporibus, plene adimpleta sunt. Nam Arturius et Echodius Find, non longo post temporis intervallo, Miatorum superius memorato in bello, trucidati sunt. Domingartus vero in Saxonia bellica in strage interfectus est: Echodius autem Buide post patrem in regnum successit.
T594.2
The killing of the sons of Aedán i.e. Bran and Domangort and Eochaid Fionn and Artur, in the battle of Circhenn, in which Aodhán was overcome, and the battle of Corann.
T594.2
Iugulacio filiorum Aedan .i. Bran & Domungort & Eochaid Fínd & Artur, i cath Chirchind in quo uictus est Aedhan, & cath Coraind.
When we look for the 537 Camlan date in the Irish Annals, we find this:
Tigernach
T537.2
Comgall son of Domongort, king of Scotland died in the 35th year of his reign.
I find it rather surprising that no know has seen fit to comment on the entry (so far as I am aware!). For Comgall was a king of Dalriada, and the Domongort here is the same name as the later one found dying in Tigernach along with Artur.
There are some other pecularities that may or may not be significant.
The AC entry on Arthur at Camlan says that there was plague in Britain and Ireland in that same year. When we go to the Irish Annals, we find the plague paired with one of the several alternate fate for Comgell son of Domangart's death in 545:
Ulster
U545.1
The first mortality called bléfed, in which Mo-Bí Clárainech died.
U545.2
Death of Comgall son of Domangart, as some say.
This earliest recorded plague in Ireland is also found in 540:
T540.1
A great mortality called blefed, in which Mo-Bi Clarineach, whose name is Berchan, ... a poet, perished.
A good recent treatment of the various plagues to strike the islands can be found here:
Let us go now to another Comgell, this one the saint and contemporary of St. Columba and Aedan father of Artur of Dalriada. This later Comgell had a monastery on the River Bann called Cambas, i.e. "The Bend". Here are the relevant sections on him from Adamnan, in Latin and English translation:
De Bello Quod In Munitione Cethirni Post Multo Commissum Est Tempora, Et De Quodam Fonticulo Ejusdem Terrulae Proximo Beati Praescentia Viri
ALIO in tempore vir beatus cum post regum in Dorso Cette condictum, Aidi videlicet filii Ainmurech, et Aidani filii Gabrani, ad campos reverteretur aequoreos, ipse et Comgellus abbas quadam serena aestivi temporis die, haud procul a supra memorata munitione resident. Tum proinde aqua de quodam proximo ad manus lavandas fonticulo ad Sanctos in aeneo defertur vasculo Quam cum sanctus Columba accepisset, ad abbatem Comgellum a latere sedentem sic profatur, Ille fonticulus, O comgelle, de quo haec effusa nobis allata est aqua, veniet dies quando nullis usibus humanis aptus erit. Qua causa, ait Comgellus, ejus fontana corrumpetur unda? Sanctus tum Columba, Quia humano, inquit, cruore replebitur: nam mei cognationales amici et tui secundum carnem cognati, hoc est, Nellis Nepotes et Cruthini populi, in hac vicina munitione Cethirni belligerantes committent bellum. Unde in supra memorata fonte aliquis de mea cognatione trucidabitur homuncio, cujus cum caeteris interfecti sanguine ejusdem fonticuli locus replebitur. Quae ejus veridica suo tempore post multos vaticinatio expleta est annos. In quo bello, ut multi norunt populi, Domnallus Aidi filius victor sublimatus est, et in eodem, secundum sancti vaticinium viri, fonticulo, quidam de parentela ejus interfectus est homo. Alius mihi Adamnano Christi miles, Finanus nomine, qui vitam multis anachoreticam annis juxta Roboreti monasterium Campi irreprehensibiliter ducebat, de eodem bello se praesente commisso aliqua enarrans, protestatus est in supradicto fonte truncum cadaverinum vidisse, eademque die ad monasterium sancti Comgelli quod Scotice dicitur Cambas commisso reversum bello quia inde prius venerat, ibidemque duos sancti Comgelli senes monachos reperisse: quibus cum de bello coram se acto, et de fonticulo humano cruore corrupto, aliquanta enarraret, illi consequenter, Verus propheta Columba, aiunt, qui haec omnia quae hodie de bello et de fonticulo expleta enarras, ante multos annos futura, nobis audientibus, coram sancto Comgello, juxta Cethirni sedens munitionem, praenunciaverat.
The blessed man's foreknowledge regarding the Battle fought many years after in the fortress of Cethirn, and regarding the Well near that place.
ANOTHER time, after the convention of the kings at the Ridge of Ceate (Druim Ceatt) that is, of Aidan, son of Gabran, and Aid, son of Ainmure the blessed man returned to the seacoast, and on a calm day in summer he and the Abbot Comgell sat down not far from the above-named fort. Then water was brought in a bronze vessel to the saints from a well that was close by to wash their hands. When St. Columba had received the water, he thus spoke to Abbot Comgell, who was sitting at his side, "A day shall come, O Comgell ! when the well whence this water now poured out for us was drawn will be no longer fit for man's use." "How?" said Comgell; "shall the water of this spring be defiled?" "From this," said St. Columba, "that it shall be filled with human blood; for thy relatives and mine that is, the people of the Cruithni and the race of Niall shall be at war in the neighbouring fortress of Cethirn (now called the Giant's Sconce, near Coleraine). Whence, at this same well, an unhappy relative of mine shall be slain, and his blood, mingling with that of many others, shall fill it up." This truthful prophecy was duly accomplished after many years, for in that battle, as is well known to many, Domnall, son of Aid, came off victorious, and at that well, according to the saint's word, a near kinsman of his was slain.
Another soldier of Christ, called Finan, who led the life of an anchorite blamelessly for many years near the monastery of the Oakwood Plain (Derry), and who was present at the battle, in relating these things to me, Adamnan, assured me that he saw a man's dead body lying in the well, and that on his return from the battlefield the same day to the monastery of St. Comgell, which is called in the Scotic tongue Cambas (on the river Bann, in diocese of Derry), and from which he had first set out, he found there two aged monks, of St. Comgell, who, when he told them of the battle he saw, and of the well defiled with human blood, at once said to him: "A true prophet is Columba, for he foretold all the circumstances you now mention today regarding the battle and the well, many years indeed before they occurred; this he did in our hearing to St. Comgell, as he sat by the fort Cethirn."
The following site discusses the forms and sources of the Cambas place-name:
camas
al. Cammas, Camus, Cambas, Cambos, Cambus Comhgaill; ¶ g. Camsa; ¶ al. Camus Macosquin in b. Coleraine, c. Derry, Fm. ii. 638; ¶ Camus-juxta-Bann, 3 m. below Coleraine, Pgi. i. 475; ¶ in d. Derry, and dry. Binnagh, Tax.; ¶ S. of Lecmag, Ch. 4; ¶ Cammas Comgail for brú Bandai, F. 161, Fg. 206, Bco. 21 a, Mt. 38; ¶ Comgell of Cambos, Ct. 349, C. 139, B. lx. 446; ¶ Cambas Comgill, Ad. 96; ¶ Mo-Cholmóc ab. Camsa, Ll. 364; ¶ the Ui Mic Uais and Fir Li ext. fr. Bior to Camos, Fir. 331.
And this site has a nice summary of the history of the place:
Cambas "The Bend" on the River Bann
There is a Cambus on the River Forth below the hill of Dumyat, as well as the 12th century monastery at Cambuskenneth.
I would add in passing, although it may not be significant, that there is an early occurring name Comgellain, a diminutive form of Comgell. See the Annals of Tigernach:
T626.2
Áedhain mac Cumascaigh & Colman mac Comgellain ad Dominum migrant.
This name is found used early for the father of Colman in the Life of St. Columba:
While it may all be in my imagination, the apparent concurrence of Arthur's Camlan and an entry bearing names that are both found in Dalriadan contexts, one of which is the same name as that of Artur's brother, combined with an associated Cambas place-name and Comgellain personal name, seems to be a bit too coincidental.
In short, everything keeps coming up Dalriadan, and this fact points to Artur son of Aedan's Miathi battle. As if the case with my suggestion that the Camlans at the Mawddach/Mawddwy place-names are a relocation of a battle fought in the kingdom of the Miathi.
Of course, I would be remiss if I closed without reminding my reader that the placement of Artur at two death-sites - one in the Miathi kingdom and the other in Circenn - may prove that the Miathi battle is a dim folk memory of the presence of L. Artorius Castus in the region fighting the Maeatae with legionary troops under Severus and Caracalla. This combines nicely with the claimed Caledonian Wood battle of Arthur in the HISTORIA BRITTONUM, along with my other HB battle placements as well as my new/y proposed reading for the Castus stone (ARM.GENTES/armatas gentes/"armed tribes").
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