Cowal part of Strathclyde in the early twelfth century

Abstract

Some of the first place-names in the Inquest of Glasgow by David, prince of Cumbria, later king of Scotland, have proved difficult to identify. This, it seems to me, is largely because, following J. T. T. Brown, whose translation of the Inquest is misleading in places, it has been assumed that they refer to places in the Glasgow district.1 However, even ifwe start in the north, from the Lennox, known to have been part of Strathclyde/Cumbria, the problematic names still remain problematic. Yet there is a rough order in the place-names, from north to south, with occasional departures from this order. Only by assuming that, for a time at least, Cowal was itself part of the Strathclyde/Cumbria principality (previously a kingdom), can the problems be somewhat eased. It has been argued plausibly that Gilchrist, an ancient earl of Menteith, was the Gilchrist who fought against Somerled, king of Innse Gall, and that in a drawn battle.2 We know for certain that the earl of Menteith had authority at one point over Cowal and Kintyre; this we know from an entry in the Assise Willelmi Regis? These were important guardian areas to the north and west of the bishop of Glasgow's land in the Lennox, which lay to the north of the Clyde, added to the Renfrewshire lands which covered the south side of the Clyde and part of its firth, where at Renfrew Somerled lost his fight and died in battle. A poem by William, a clerk of Glasgow, nearly contemporary with the battle, makes Bishop Herbert and his retinue the heroes, along with St Kentigern, of this battle.4 While the order of Glasgow's possessions in the Inquest is on the whole from north to south, the first name, Carcleuien, now Carcluie (near Alloway NGR NS 347157), lies inland on the western seaboard of Ayrshire. Earlier forms of the Ayrshire name are Gortcloy (1236), Garcloy (1601) and other variants. Of these, the 1599 variant is the