Descriptive Gazetteer Entry for Beregonium

Beregonium, a misprint in the Ulm edition (1486) of Ptoleiny's Geography for 'Rerigonium,' a town of the Novantæ, now generally identified with the Mote of Innermessan, on the E shore of Loch Ryan, Wigtownshire. Hector Boece, however, applied the name 'Beregonium' to a very large vitrified fort in Ardchattan parish, Argyllshire, on the E side of Ardmucknish Bay, 2 ½ miles NNW of Connel Ferry, and 5½ NNE by boat of Oban. That fort's correct name was Dunmhicuisneachan ('fort of the sons of Uisneach'), now corrupted into Dunmacsnioehan (vol. i., p. 76, of Skene's Celt. Scot., 1876). Neither Beregonium, nor any name of similar sound, seems ever to have belonged to it; but as Beregonium it figures in sheet 45 of the Ordnance Survey (1876), where also we find, close by, ` Port Selma ' and ` New Selma. ' Not that any name ever belonged to it which can, in any way, connect it with the Selma of Ossian or the place of the residence of the Fingalian kings. Nothing better can be said for it in relation to Selma than is said by the writer of the -New Statistical Account of Ardchattan:-` One may be permitted to say that this locality may advance claims to the honour in question quite as powerful as those of any other in the Highlands. Selma signifies in Gaelic " the fine view, " and certainly a nobler and more magnificent prospect than that from the top of this hill cannot easily be obtained in any country. 'It is true the name Balanree, or more properly Dun-Bhail-an-Righ, signifying'the hill of the king's town,' is borne by a fine range of adjacent cliff-a name that might seem to favour the notion of kings having had their seat here, either kings Fingalian or kings Dalriadan. As a matter of fact,however, it probably implies no more than that the cliff commands a splendid view. Localities bearing names associated with kingly residence or kingly power are almost as numerous in the Highlands as are places commanding prospects of similar splendour to that from Dunmacsniochan; so that each and all, on the score of the names they bear, might as forcibly as this claim to have been the site of the capital of either the Fingalian or the Dalriadan kings. Dunstaffnage Castle, too, which undoubtedly succeeded a Dalriadan royal residence, and is only 2¾ miles distant, has been supposed to countenance the theory that a metropolitan city was here; but as that castle is on the opposite side of the entrance to Loch Etive, and can only be reached circuitously by Connel Ferry, the argument based on it, if allowed to point at all to any site of a royal city, would indicate one on the southern side of Loch Etive, and therefore tells against Dunmacsniochan. Nor are the vestiges which exist, or the relics which have been found, of anything like specific or sufficient character to warrant any of the theories which have been hazarded respecting it. The hill is a small,. double-topped, rocky eminence, adjoining a strip of plain. A well-defined vitrified fort, in some parts 8 feet high, is on the top; a defensive wall, still partly extant, was at the base. Traces of a Caledonian circle are said to have been on its shoulders; a small burying-ground and an ancient chapel are adjacent to the base; faint traces of a straight raised way, bearing a name which signifies 'the market street,' are on the neighbouring plain; and on the plain have been found a stone coffin, an urn, a sandal, and a hollow log of wood. There are all the real materials out of which have been manufactured the ancient capital of Dalriada, the seat of a monarchy far earlier than the Christian era, the Selma of Ossian, the place of the residence of Fingalian kings !


(F.H. Groome, Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland (1882-4); © 2004 Gazetteer for Scotland)

Linked entities:
Feature Description: "a misprint"
Administrative units: Wigtownshire ScoCnty

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