Kenneth mac Alpin

Well, I know I said I would be talking about the Macgregors this month, but frankly, I have been busy with so many other things that I have had very little time for post writing or simply writing in general. But since I have been feeling guilty, I plan to post a few more things in the last couple weeks of February.

So today, we are going to talk about Kenneth mac Alpin. As I said in my previous post, he was the first of the MacGregor race. He lived in 800AD in Scotland, during the time the vikings were raiding the country. Scotland was kind of in a continuos state of Civil War, the Scots and Picts never having really liked each other very much. But they began to realize that in order to fight off the enemy vikings, they were going to have to get together.

This was helped along by Kenneth mac Alpin. He was the first joint king between the Scots of Dalriada and the Picts. His father was a Scot and his mother was a Pict so that might have had something to do with it. He was created King of Dalriada in 840 and was known as Kenneth I. When the Pictish royal family was crushed by the viking invasions, he became king of the Picts as well, thus bringing the two nations together. Well, there was this one folk tale that says he actually did away with them himself, but we have no idea if that's true or not!

However, he obviously brought the two together to make Scotland stronger and able to withstand the vikings. Kenneth mac Alpin was also the one the establish the royal seat at Scone which from that day on would be where the Scottish kings were crowned. Scone became his capital and he ruled the people from there. He was buried on the island of Iona where most of Scotland's early kings were entombed.

So he brought together the Scots of Dalriada and the Picts of Pictland and eventually, they became a whole nation, that mac Alpin named Alba, the old Gaelic name for Scotland. So the MacGregors are obviously fiercely proud of being related to this man as he was the one who really created the Scotland we know today.

I will try to be back later as always. Please let me know if there is anything in particular you want to know about the MacGregors, or a famous MacGregor you with me to do a small bio on. Don't be afraid to tell me!

Slainte, Hazel

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