Macbeth Trail Part III

My intermittent quest for places associated with Macbeth continues. On the return trip from the Western Isles, (Blog 13/07/17) a deviation along the A96 took me on the whisky trail past many famous distilleries but also to a couple of places where the true story of Shakespeare's "man of blood" was played out.

Pitgaveny, near Elgin, was the place where Duncan and Macbeth fought for the kingdom of Alba.

Originally on the shores of a sea-loch, Loch Spynie, a long arm of the North Sea which was accessible by ship, it became the site of Spynie Castle, the residence of the powerful Bishops of Moray.

Spynie Castle

The arms of the Bishop of Moray

Now, the only evidence of the loch side is the steep drop from the road to the palace into the woods below but in August 1040, Macbeth, the warrior " disdaining fortune with his brandished steel" would have watched Duncan's galleys beaching on the shoreline as they prepared to join in battle.

The steep drop from the roadway is the site of the old loch side

Map showing Loch Spynie as it was when Duncan sailed up to do battle

Duncan was wounded in the ensuing engagement and carried from the scene to the site of Elgin cathedral where he died.

Elgin Cathedral

Not the cowardly murder of a sleeping king but the defeat of an inept general by a superior one.

Duncan's death allowed Macbeth to be crowned king at Scone, deep in the heartland of his rival's power base (Blog 28/05/17) Duncan had paid the penalty for attacking Macbeth, the Mormaer of Moray, in his fiefdom.

Macbeth had regained the title of Mormaer held by his father in 1032 and seized by his cousin Gille Comgain after the killing of the older man. In revenging his father's death Macbeth made a widow

of Gille's wife Gruoch, herself a princess of the royal line.

In 1033, Macbeth married Gruoch and adopted her son Lulach. Lulach was destined to reign briefly after his stepfather's death in 1057 but lacking his leadership qualities and martial skill was defeated by Malcolm Canmore.

Birnie Kirk

It is believed that the marriage took place at Birnie Kirk. Parts of the building date to the 12th century though the building of stone churches to replace the wooden ones of the Celtic church was begun by Margaret the wife of Macbeth's nemesis, Malcolm Canmore - Malcolm III.

A Pictish incised stone, now much worn, showing an eagle. The church stands on any earlier sacred site

A Celtic bell, the Ronnel Bell, in the church is 1000 years old and could well have been rung at the wedding of Macbeth and Gruoch.

I left Moray and headed south with a brief stop at Dunnottar castle so impressive on the skyline above Stonehaven.

 A great fortress, its predecessor would have been one of the "duns" or fortified hills of Macbeth's time - Dun-add in Argyll, Dun-keld, Dun-edin or Edinburgh, Dun-fermline, the site of Malcolm Canmore's tower.

The much maligned monarch still lives in the country he ruled for seventeen years despite the efforts of his detractors.  Next visit must be to the site of his final battle.

Macbeth Trail Part II

Loch Leven

 Before travelling north, I made a foray into Fife to get  a notion of the principal woman in the story of Macbeth

Lady Macbeth has had a bad press since Shakespeare envisioned her as a ruthless, ambitious woman giving support to her sometimes wavering husband.

In fact, Gruoch was as steely as her image and is one of the few woman of her time to have left an impression on history.

She was a royal princess in her own right, being the grand-daughter of a king.

Gruoch ingen Boite (c. 1015–1054) was the daughter of Boite mac Cináeda, son of Cináed (Kenneth) III

Before 1032, Gruoch was married to Gille Coemgáin mac Maíl Brigti, who had killed Findlaích, Macbeth's father to take the title of Mormaer of Moray.

MacBethad mac Findlaích (Macbeth) avenged the death of his father by  killing Gille and his supporters in 1032 and assuming the title of Mormaer.

Gruoch had at least one son, Lulach mac Gille Coemgáin, by Gille. After the death of her husband, she married Macbeth and he adopted her son. This may seem strange to modern eyes but marriages were a matter of dynastic alliances in early medieval Alba.

 Lulach was destined to reign, albeit briefly, as King of Scots

The marriage probably infuriated Malcolm II who was trying to extinguish the tanist tradition and replace it with one of primogeniture in his own line.

The next year, one of her male relatives, probably her only brother, was murdered by Malcolm II as he maintained his hold on the throne by eliminating all who had claims to the throne under the old system of tanistry where the kingship alternated between different branches of the royal family.   Malcolm may also have killed Gruoch’s father, Boite, who was his rival for the crown.

 Grouch had no reason to be loyal to Malcolm or Duncan, his chosen successor.

She seems to have a special attachment to Fife, having lands there from her great-grandfather Duff who had ruled as king from 962 to 966 when succession still alternated between collateral royal lines. Her branch had become Thanes of Fife on their exclusion from the system. A system that collapsed with the accession of Duncan. 

St Serf's Isle on Loch Leven

 Her father Boite and she had made grants of land to the Culdee monastery on St Serf's isle in Loch Leven. Macbeth's name also appears on the ancient charters along with gifts of land in Kirkness and Bogie to the Culdees of Loch Leven.

The remains of the Augustinian chapel on St Serf's Isle

St Serf's Isle is now part of the RSPB reserve and landing on it  would disturb nesting birds. 

 Maiden castle is a motte,  an artificial hill, at one time topped by a wooden palisade. It stands in Kennoway in Fife.

The site is traditionally associated with "Macduff, Thane of Fife".

Maiden Castle, the Motte , now covered with trees

Hector Boece (1526) described it as surrounded by seven ramparts and ditches and as the place where for a long time lived the descendants of the "illustrious" Macduff

The Macduff of Shakespeare's play is an invention designed to please the new Stuart monarch, a dramatic means of contrasting his loyalty to Duncan against the perfidious treachery of Macbeth, the regicide.  It also provided a retelling of the Stewarts’ descent from the mythical Banquo.

Castle Macduff  from a later period

 Macbeth’s reputation was being besmirched by the Canmore dynasty long before the Bard as they too sought to prove the legitimacy of their line.

The Culdee monastery was replaced with Augustinian monks by David I who, with his Norman background, understood the need for hierarchy and structure in ecclesiastical as well as political circles.

 By that time the Gaelic-Celtic society of interlinked kinships and family loyalties had been replaced by feudalism.

Shakespeare did get one thing correct.  Queen Gruoch, his Lady Macbeth, was the equal of any of her male contemporaries in the dynastic struggles of the nascent Kingdom of Alba.