Macbeth Trail - Postscript

Lulach's stone, traditional site of his death near Mossat

Whether Lulach, Macbeth's stepson, fought at Lumphanan is unknown. What is known is that like the fictitious Fleance of Shakespeare's play, he escaped death at the time. Such was the prestige of Macbeth that, even after his demise, the House of Moray was powerful enough for the crown to pass to Lulach.

His is the first recorded coronation of a Scottish monarch, seated on the Stone of Destiny at Scone within a month of the defeat at Lumphanan.

In effect, Lulach was King only in the north, essentially in the old Pictish territories and of the far north and Northern Isles where there were family connections to ensure loyalty.

Lulach was nicknamed "Tairbeath", Lulach the Simple. Whether he was or not, he certainly wasn't of the same mould as his predecessor.

He was lured from the security of his home base, some say by a false promise of negotiation, to Mossat in Strathbogie on the ancient border of the lands of Moray.

Here, he was killed on the 17th March 1058 and consigned to history as a footnote. The traditional site is marked by an Iron Age standing stone of much greater antiquity so the exact circumstances of his death are unknown

Kildrummy Castle, seat of the Earls of Mar, still guards the approach to Moray

So died the last King of the House of Alpin, a dynasty which had started when Kenneth I,(Cináed mac Ailpín, Kenneth MacAlpin) became King of the Picts and Scots to form the beginnings of Alba in 843.

Lulach was also, arguably, the last King of Alba. Every monarch since Kenneth had in effect been the King of Scotland, but those up to King Aedh would have been referred to in their own time as Kings of the Picts and Scots; and those from Donald I onward as Kings of Alba. It was only with the replacement of the House of Moray (Macbeth) with the House of Dunkeld (Malcolm) that the occupant of the throne would be referred to by contemporary sources as the King of Scotland.

The line of Lulach continued, his son Máel Snechtai was Mormaer of Moray, while his daughter had a son, Óengus, who inherited the title of Mormaer of Moray and made an unsuccessful attempt to claim the throne in the reign of David I, which ended in his defeat and death in 1130.

After the defeat of Óengus, Moray was probably granted to William fitz Duncan and, after his death in 1147, it was to some extent colonized by King David's French, Flemish and English followers.

Returning from my journey on the trail of Macbeth, I crossed the Forth on the new bridge  - the Queensferry Crossing, named after Queen Margaret, wife of Malcolm Canmore, and Queen Gruoch's successor as consort to the king.  We live amidst our history.

The Queensferry bridge