Battle of Nechtansmere 20 May

Today, May 20 is the day when all Picts gather round on a late spring evening, drink a warming glass of something or other and inflict a tattoo or two to commemorate the famous Battle of Nechtansmere in 685. Pictland, as you will all no doubt recall, comprised all of modern Scotland north of the Forth and Clyde except for Argyll. The Northumbrians had been gradually extending their territory to the north, having captured Edinburgh in 638. King Ecgfrith of Northumbria, casting aside for a moment his brown ale and stotty cake, invaded even more lands held by the Picts in 685 and the Picts, not surprisingly, were distinctly miffed. They met in battle on May 20 near Dunnichen; the Picts, after some preliminary hooting and shouting, pretended to run away and drew the Northumbrians into dank, dark and misty swamp of Nechtansmere. The Pictish King Bridei III, bursting like a thunderbolt from the mist, killed Ecgfrith by shoving a sharpened stick through his head. The victorious Picts destroyed Ecgfrith’s army, stole all his brown ale and stotty cake and enslaved the women. The battle dealt a blow to the Northumbrians from which they never recovered. Although the name Pict or Picti is usually assumed to mean painted or tattooed (as in Latin) it may have a Celtic origin. The Brythonic Celts knew them as ‘Prydyn’ which is, of course, the origin of the word ‘Britain’. Sadly, although the Picts had given the Geordies a sound drubbing, they were not up to the mark when the Vikings came along and utterly defeated them in 839.