The Vanished Kingdom of Alt Clut

 I am listening to Vanished Kingdoms by Norman Davies and the second chapter is about the lost Pictish Kingdom of  the Rock or Strathclyde, also known by the Britons as Alt Clut. Some scholars think it might be the site of the legendary Camelot. St. Patrick probably came from there as well, as did my MacLachlan ancestors. From The History Files:

The tribe of the Damnonii were never fully conquered by Rome. Instead, at some point during the Roman occupation of Britain they seem to have created an independent kingdom of their own in the region of Scotland that is now known as Strathclyde. This kingdom quickly became known by the Brythonic name of its capital at Dumbarton: Alt Clut or Alclud ('Rock of the Clyde'), or Alcluith (an older version of the name). Centred on the Clyde headwaters and its capital of Dumbarton, the kingdom's borders can only be vaguely estimated. They seem to have stretched a little north of the Antonine line, then over to the ridge of the Campsie Fells (roughly between Lennoxtown and Balfron, and taking in the later county of Dumbarton), up towards Loch Lomond where two huge ice age stone deposits both bear names that possibly mark out a British border (see AD 711, below), and westwards to the head of Loch Long. Its southern border seems usually to have abutted that of Galwyddel (Galloway), while to the north it was bordered by Pictland, to the north-east and east by the Guotodin, and to the south-east by Caer Guendoleu.

Essentially re-established in AD 382 by Magnus Maximus, it may in fact have been much older. The original first century Roman conquest of southern Scotland did not include Alt Clut's British Damnonii territory, although there were periods when it later fell under Roman administration. For the most part, however, it seems to have remained independent. Certainly it was one of the few British kingdoms never to be conquered by the English or Normans, instead eventually being taken over by the Scottish crown. Its southern region of Cumbria was gained after the fall of North Rheged and a period of possession by Bernicia, and simply bore the name of its 'people of the same land', the Cymri, which is the same source of the name for Cymru (Wales).

Many of Alt Clut's kings are obscure or are only poorly attested. Only two stand out - Coroticus and Rhiderch Hael. Many of them are often only known by the Welsh or Irish versions of their names. Little of the Cumbric dialect of Brythonic which was used by the Britons between the walls was written down by them. Mostly their actions were recorded either due to Irish attacks on the coast or by Welsh storytellers who were remembering events from several generations away in time. Where both Alt Clut's British and later Welsh forms are known, the latter is always shown last. Edward Dawson suggests the theory that the somewhat mysterious Attacotti of AD 364 could be the Alt Clut Britons....(Read more.)

 

From English Monarchs:

The kingdom emerged after Roman rule was withdrawn from Britain at the beginning of the fifth century. Its capital was Dumbarton Rock, a 240 feet high twin-peaked volcanic rock with the River Clyde on one side and the River Leven on two more, 'the Fortress of the Britons', known as Alt Clut in brythonic Celtic. A Celtic settlement on Dunbarton Rock was first recorded in a letter of St Patrick to King Ceretic, the British King of Strathclyde in about AD450. In which he complained about a raid the Britons had made on his Irish converts.

Strathclyde covered the area from Loch Lomond to the Celtic kingdom of Rheged around the Solway. At the head of Loch Lomond in Glen Falloch a great boulder, known as the Clach nam Breatann, the Stone of the Britons marked the northern reaches of Strathclyde.

It was bordered to the north by Pictland, to the north-east and east by the Goutodin, and to the south by Caer Guendoleu, and Galwyddel. the kingdom's southern region of Cumbria was acquired after the demise of North Rheged and acquired its name from its people, the Cymri, or comrades, from which same source the Welsh people referred to themselves as Cymru. (Read more.)

From Sean Poage:

Alt Clut, as part of what the Welsh called “The Old North” is full of fascinating history and legend and likely the longest-lived of the Brythonic kingdoms. Their imposing citadel at Dumbarton was never taken until the year 870, when the defenders ran out of water after a four month Viking siege. The king, his family and hundreds of Britons were taken as slaves to Dublin.

This finally gave the Scots their chance and it appears that Alt Clud becomes a mixed Gaelic and Brythonic kingdom, known as Strathclyde. This means “Valley of the River Clyde”, the center of power of the region. The Scots would fully take over Strathclyde by the mid eleventh century, controlling as far south as Cumbria until the end of the eleventh century. (Read more.)

From Kings and Queens:

Ceretic Guletic was king of Alt Clut in the 5th Century AD. He was identified with Coroticus a Britonnic warrior mentioned on a letter by Saint Patrick. One of the letters is addressed to the warband of the Coroticus people. The letter mentions the enslavement of newly Christianised Irish and the sale of Christians

‘Soldiers whom I no longer call my fellow citizens or citizens of the Roman saints, but fellow citizens of the devils, in consequence of the evil deeds; who live in death after the hostile rite of the barbarians; associates of the Scots and Apostate Picts; desirous of glutting themselves with the blood of innocent Christians, multitudes of whom I have begotten in God and confirmed in Christ.’

In the letter Patrick announces that he has excommunicated Coroticus’ men. The connection between Coroticus to Ceretic Guletic is based largely on the 8th Century AD gloss to Patrick’s letter. It has been suggested that sending the letter provoked the trial Patrick mentions in the Confession. The ‘Apostate’ Picts are the southern Picts that were converted by Saint Ninian and ministered to by Palladius who subsequently left Christianity. The Northern Picts of Flortriu were later converted by Saint Columba in the 6th Century AD. As they were not yet Christian they would not have been called Apostate.

From using the above you would be able to date Ceretic in the 5th Century AD. Ceretic also appears in the Harleian genealogies of the rulers of Alt Clut. This lists his father as Cynloyp, grandfather as Cinhil and great-grandfather as Cluim. It is from this source we get the nickname Guletic which means land-holder. In the Book of Armagh he is called ‘Coirthech rex Aloo’ or Ceretic, King of the Height (of the Clyde). (Read more.)

A site both pixilated and interesting. From Land of the Fae:

I subsequently found out that this whole area is tied up with the earliest myths of King Arthur and Merlin. I believe that when Britons migrated from Strathclyde to Wales and Corwall that they carried the stories of King Arthur and Merlin with them and transfered the stories to places that were more familiar to them.

Arthuret is the site of the Battle of Arderydd that was fought in AD 573 between the pagan king Gwendollau and the Christian kings Riderch, Peredur and Gwrgi. Riderch was the king of Alt Clut (Dumbarton). Gwendollau was defeated and his court magician Myrddin (Merlin) went mad with grief and fled to the woods of Celidon where he lived on wild food and became a prophet. (Read more.)

For further reading, go HERE.

Meanwhile, I highly recommend: