Dún Nechtain, Fortriu and the Geography of the Picts

In the nineteenth century the Pictish kingdom of Fortriu and the site of the Battle of Nechtansmere were located by scholars in Menteith and Strathearn and at Dunnichen in Forfarshire respectively. These identifications have largely gone unchallenged. The purpose of this article is to review the evidence for these locations and to suggest that there is in fact unambiguous evidence that Fortriu lay north of the Mounth on the shores of the Moray Firth and that a case can be made that Nechtansmere was fought in Badenoch. Fortriu has long been recognised as the core territory of Pictavia and its re-location in the North has profound implications for our understanding of the course of early Scottish History.