34 “THE CLOCHMABON.”’ 
Now we have here a foray by Mabon on the territory of 
Alclud, and an attack in return on the country of Mabon by 
the kine or people of Reged from Dumbarton up to Lochlomond- 
side. It certainly seems as if Reged and Mabon were not the 
leaders but the opposing warrior tribes, called from _ their 
different districts. Line 43 carries on the story :— 
‘* About the ford of the boundary, about the alders his battle- 
places, : 
When was caused the battle of the King, Sovereign, Prince, 
Very wild will the kine be before Mabon.”’ 
? 
Here we seem to have “the ford of the boundary ”’ on the 
Esk as often used in later days. 
The pursuit carried so far, and, perhaps, Mabon killed as 
he “kept the ford’’ for his flying followers and the stone and 
circle was erected in his honour. 
The idea is a pretty one, but I submit that the Clochmabon 
was there long before and known by that name, and that his 
sorrowing tribes-men buried their hero there, as in a hallowed 
shrine, just as our heroes are laid to rest in Westminister. At 
anyrate the period from A.D. 800 to a.p. 890 was too short and too 
disturbed to allow of the name becoming so identified with Cloch- 
mabon and Lochmabon as to hold on while all else was changed. 
Dr Skene (“Celtic Scotland ’’) suggests, if he does not state 
authoritatively, that Mabon was the ager publicus of the Romans 
stationed at the wall, and was so called because the time-expired 
legionaries were settled there and the young men drafted in to 
supply their places. If so, the Cloch marked the passage into 
Mabon, as the Cloch at Gourock marks the passage from the 
deep sea into the Clyde. And the piety of an early age erected 
the circle and stone as a sanctuary where men might offer up 
their vows or return their thanksgivings as they left their homes 
in Mabon, for life as soldiers at the wall, or came to settle down 
after their labours at the legion. Perhaps the warriors of the 
Brythons were confronted by the stone and circle when they 
forced their way across the ford for the first time, and when they 
saw its size, exclaimed “ Clochmabon, the stone of the mighty !”’ 
It may be, as suggested by Dr Neilson, that it was dedicated to 
Maponus, a heathen deity equated with Apollo, who was wor- 
shipped in Cumberland and Northumberland during Roman 
times. But we must remember that these circles are not con- 
