Putting some spin on Battle of Mons Graupius

THE battle of Mons Graupius probably took place at the Pass of Grange near Keith (“Archaeologist claims to have located site of Roman battle”, The Herald, May 18 & Letters, May 20 and 21). This was the last of the marching camps of Agricola’s expedition up and across the east coast of Scotland. Bennachie was the second last.

A few miles further on, over the Enzie Braes, and the Roman army would have found themselves in the fatlands of Moray and meeting up with their navy which had put into, and made, the small Roman camp at Nether Dallachy near the mouth of the Spey.

Why did the main army stop where it did?

It made no sense. Unless they met serious opposition.

They may well have won the battle which ended the expedition, but the defeated Celtic tribes would have disappeared into the forests perhaps to fight another day.

The conversation between Agricola and his son-in-law, embedded war correspondent Tacitus, might have been thus: “OK, Tacitus, old chap, you report back that we’ve won a famous victory. Job done. Now let’s get out of this Godforsaken place and get back to defending more important parts of the empire. Make it sound good. Give the tabloids (or it may have been tablets) a lively story.”

So where does Mons Graupius fit into this story?

The name of the farm on the edge of the campsite, going back generations, is “Montgrew”, pronounced “Montgrau”. Mons, translated from Latin into other European languages, including the Brythonic Old Welsh which the Picts might have spoken, becomes Mont.

“Grau?” Any half-decent spin doctor would, for the home crowd, render it more dignified ... more ... Latin ... Graupius. I’M afraid that when Gordon Casely prays in aid of the origin of the name Iona, he is barking up the wrong tree (Letters, May 21).

The name almost certainly owes its root to the Latinisation of the Gaelic word “dionachd” meaning a haven, a word which appears several times in the English translation of Adomnan’s book on Columba in reference to Iona.

This is also how Achinbady became Hinba, that is by removing the non-Latin sounds from the beginning and end of both names.

Besides, the Latin index to the Book of Pluscarden confirms that Columba had two monasteries called Iona and it is clear from the evidence that the other was on the site of an oak grove, so beloved of the Druids on whose sites Columba and his fellow abbots were so keen to build. YOUR headline “BBC to ramp up coverage of Scotland” (May 22) caught our eye. Alas it was not about improving coverage of our national radio station. For several days we have been unable to get Radio Scotland on digital. We look forward to the day when its coverage is indeed ramped up on a robust platform.