“THE CLOCHMABON.”’ 33: 
and spoke, not Gaelic, but what is now known as Welsh. Now 
we find in the Ulster Annals that from A.D. 870 onwards the citadel 
of Alcluith was repeatedly assailed and taken by the Northmen 
until in A.D. 890 the British warriors determined to join their 
kindred on the Clywdd or Cluden in North Wales. They were 
forced to fight at Rouchal or Rockle or Rotchell now Rockhall on 
the hills above Lochmaben, where Constantine, the last Guledig or 
King of Strathclyde, was killed. One of the articles of the treaty 
made on the following day was that the Anglic tongue was to be 
the language of the district. 
The Kingdom of Strathclyde was divided into several pro- 
vinces, one of which, comprising the present Dumfriesshire, 
was known as “the district of Mabon.’’ The old name passed 
away with the old tongue, and now survives in Lochmaben, the 
loch district of Mabon, and the Lochmabenstone, or, as it 
ought to be, the Clochmabon or Stone of Mabon. But what is 
Mabon? 
The Welsh Dictionary tells us that Mab means a baby, 
whilst Mabon is a young man, a warrior, a mighty man, or hero. 
Thus we are left with the Loch of Mabon and the Cloch of 
Mabon, separated from one another by many miles. The ques- 
tion to be settled seems to me to be, was the Mabon spoken of 
here “an individual ’’ or was it “the district?’’ I think the 
latter to be the more probable, although at first I was inclined 
to agree with Sir H. Maxwell in his theory (Dumfries and Gallo- 
way, pp. 132-135). He says:—“We may assume that there 
was at least one warrior of the name . . . towards the close 
of the 6th or beginning of the 7th century.’? He quotes 
Taliessin, poem 18, where the invasion of Strathclyde and the 
battle of Owen, the son of Urien, are described as follows :— 
“A battle, when Owen defends the cattle of his country, , 
Will meet Mabon from another country, 
A battle at the ford of Alclud.”’ 
“A battle on this side of Llachar, 
The trembling camp saw Mabon. 
A shield in hand, on the fair portion of Reidol 
Against the kine of Reged they engaged, 
If they had wings they would have flown, 
Against Mabon without corpses they would not go. 
Meeting, they descend and commence a battle. 
The country of Mabon is pierced with destructive slaughter.’’ 
