I am interested to know what any of you make of the following snippet from the *Ordnance gazetteer of Scotland: a survey of Scottish topography, statistical, biographical, and historical* which is available online at http://www.archive.org/stream/ordnancegazett01ingroo/ordnancegazett01ingroo_djvu.txt This looks to be an OCR generated document; I have made no effort to correct the typography. An ancient Caledonian tribe, called the Epidii, occu- pied the great part of wdiat is now Argyllshire. They took their name from the word Ebyd, signifying 'a peninsula,' and designating what is now Kintyre, which hence was anciently called the Epidian promontory. They spread as far N as Loch Linnhe and the Braes of ( dcnoivby ; they must have lived in a very dispersed condition; they necessarily were cut into sections by- great natural barriers; they likewise, from the character ol their boundaries on the N and the E, must have been niii.-h separated from the other Caledonian tribes; and they do not appear to have been disturbed even re- motely by the Romans. They were, in great degree, an isolated people; and in so far as they had communica- tion with other territories than their own, they seem to have had it, for a long time, far more with Erin than with Caledonia. Some of them, at an early period, pro- bably before the Christian era, emigrated to the NE coast of Ireland, and laid there the foundation of a prosperous settlement, under the name of Dalriada. A native tribe, called the Cruithne, was there before them; took its name from words signifying 'eaters of corn;' is thought to have been addicted to the cultivation of the ground, in contrast to a pastoral or roving mode of life: and seems to have easily yielded itself into absorp- tion with the immigrants. An intermingled race of Kpidii and Cruithne arose, took the name of Dalriads • a- Dalriada], s, adopted the Christian faith from theearly Culdoe, ,,| 1-ain. and arc presumed to have combined the comparatively pastoral habits of the Epidii with the land-cultivating habits of the Cruithne. A colony of tl'es. Daliiadso, Dalriadans came, in the year 503, to- Kintyre : brought with them the practices of the Christian religion, and improved practices in the com- mon. ,- aits ,,t life; sent off detachments to various centres oi the old Epidian region, especially to Islay and to Lorn: acquired ascendency through all the country of the Epidii; and established at Dunstaffnage, in the ARGYLLSHIRE neighbourhood of Oban, a monarchy which is usually regarded by historians as the parent monarchy of Scotland. Further notices of that early monarchy will be given under the heading Dunstalfnage. King Kenneth, who began to reign at Dunstalfnage in H0.\ was the maternal grandson of a king of Pictavia, who dir.l without any male heir in S33, and he made a claim to be that king's successor, contested the claim for several years with two competitors, and eventually en- forced it by strength of victory; united the crown of Pictavia to the crown of Dalriada: and established, in breadth and permanency, the kingdom of Scotland. The territory now tunning Argyllshire, while it had been the cradle of the Scottish kingdom, became thence- forth no more than an outlying portion of it; and it soon began to be much disturbed by invasions and tbrays of Norsemen and other depredators who swept the seas... David Ewing