ABSTRACT
King Ecgfrith was advised by Cuthbert, bishop of Lindisfarne, and presumably informed circles among the northern Angles not to invade Pictland in 685 (HE IV, 26), and Cuthbert’s personal familiarity with the Niduari Picts in Fib (Fife) affords a glimpse of the probably extensive contacts between northern Anglian circles and Pictish communities immediately north of the Forth.1 Ecgfrith remained undeterred, however, and his army had traversed Strathmore when it turned aside to experience total defeat on 20 May at Nechtanesmere, otherwise known as Dún Nechtain (AU s.a. 684: AT p. 209) and as the Lake of the Heron (HB ch. 57), now Dunnichen in Forfarshire.
