The Death of Indulf King of the Scots : part 2

The Evidence

Hector Boece in his, Scotorum Historiae a Prima Gentis Origine cum Aliarum Rerum et Gentium Illustratione Non Vulgari, published 1526.

Says that Haakon of Norway, and Helrik of Denmark, led fleet of Danes which were prevented from landing by the Scots, but eventually made a landing , in Buchan. The locals were defeated and fed to the mountains.

Indulf raised his army and attacked. The lines broke into individual combat until , two Lothian men, named Dunbar and Graham, appeared in the rear of the Danes, causing them to flee. Many were killed in the pursuit. Indulf, with small band, thinking that the danger was over, came across a part of Danes and in the fighting Indulf was killed.

George Buchanan in his Rerum Scoticarum Historia, published 1582, tells a similar story as Boece, adding that the fleet was nearly 50 ships. The two kings, he names as Hago and Helric, failed to land in Fife and Lothian, sailed north unable to land anywhere until they found a "place on the coast of Banff, at the river of the river Cullen". He also says that Lothians appearing in the Danish rear caused them to break. However he says that the majority of the Danes stood their ground in a woody vale. Indulf thinking the Danes completely routed fell upon this force with only a small number of troops, where he was killed.

Buchanan also provides an alternative ending, as "some relate that he was killed by an arrow, shot from a vessel".

Patrick Abercrombie in The Martial Atchievements Of The Scots Nation, published 1711, provides a similar account as Buchanan. The Danes and Norwegians landing at Cullen in Boyn. In Abercrombie's version Indulf is killed leading his troops against "one Brigade" of Vikings who stand firm whilst the rest of their army flees.

Rev. Robert Grant provided the Cullen entry in the Statistical Account of Scotland, published in 1794. He opens the chapter by stating the Cullen appears from old charters to have been called Inverculan.

Rev. Grant follows the narratives by Buchanan and especially Abercrombie. He adds that a cairn, known as the Kings' Cairn, which lies a mile west of Cullen House in a wooded area, which was once open moorland, marks where Indulf fell, and may be where he is buried.

In the New Statistical Account of Scotland, published in 1845, the Rev. George Henderson, tells us that Cullen has been known as Inverculan, Culan and Culane. Whilst he states that he is following Buchanan account, his own account does actually differ. Rev. Henderson states that the Danes tried to land on the coast of Buchan, then heard west and successfully landed at the mouth of the "burn or water of Cullen".

Rev. Henderson also says that the "most deadly areas of the conflict" was on the moor of Rannachie or Baads of Cullen, and is known as the Battle of Baads. Here there are many tumuli which when opened contain bones and "fragments of arms". One detachment of the defeated Danes was said to have fled to Mortlach where there was already an encampment of Danes, another fled on the road Forfar and were defeated.