In November 2019 in what appears as a campaign by the leadership of the Clan Grant Society to promulgate an unintelligent tartan-and-shortbread parody of Clan history, an article was published in Standfast called:

“Society and Lordship in Early Medieval Strathspey:
understanding the past when there are no contemporary records”.

"Forensic"

Goodall wrote:

"The Glencarnie’s function was purely ‘forensic’ as a literal translation of their charters shows, that is a jurisdictional role....."

Errr… nonsense. There was no such thing as "forensic service". I cannot see any explanation other than he lifted this error from Sir William Fraser - and it is clear that he had not deigned to read the correction I had published years ago. The phrase which he should have been struggling to find is "forinsec service".

When accepting a position in feudal society, military service was a normal requirement. It was usually specified both in terms of eg the numbers of knights they were required to supply and the number of days they could be called upon for. Another major consideration was whether or not they might be required to serve in foreign lands – and this was identified as “Forinsec Service”. So ironically the term means pretty well exactly the opposite of what Goodall says and the Lords of Glencarnie (now roughly the parish of Duthil) were required to perform military service for the King of Scots – including service abroad if called to do so.

"Dabhach"

Goodall wrote:

"Dabhach (singular), Dabhachean (plural): Gaelic word for self-supporting estate or cluster of farm houses, dating back probably to iron age."

We may start by noting the self-serving obscurantism. The vast majority of readers will not be familiar with Gaelic, so it would have been helpful to have included an Anglicised spelling (usually Davach or Davoch).

Next we should note that this definition is nonsense. It is quite easy to have a "self-supporting" farm unit much smaller than a davach (and there are and were many such). Obversely there is no problem with an estate run as one unit comprising several davachs.

The root of the word Dabhach is the word "Dabh" meaning "cow". A Dabhach is defined as an area of land capable of carrying 60 head of cattle. This correct definition was easily establishable by consulting a dictionary, but evidently the misplaced self-confidence took precedence. The acreage implied varies hugely according to the quality of the land – usually between one and four ploughgates. Actually it gets a bit more complicated than that, particularly depending on where you are in Scotland.

Socio-economic Organisation

Goodall wrote:

“Gaelic, British Strathclyde, Ancient Welsh, Ancient Cornish and Pictish societies were broadly similar in organisation and language.”

This assertion is remarkably unhelpful, sending the reader in entirely the wrong direction on both counts:

  1. Language: Assuming a read across between languages is dangerous. Anyone whose native language is English but who has studied French is aware that “Librarie” is NOT the same as “Library” etc. There are important parallels with Pictish and Gaelic – which is why they have been referred to as “P” and “Q” Celtic – even though there are still far too many people in Scotland today who would seek to dismiss Pictish (even when they say they don’t!). So it is only true that the languages are “broadly similar” if one intends not to study them.
  2. Organisation: The problem here is that there was a vast difference between lowland and highland. In Lowland areas “family farms” were feasible. The land was richer and so the area required for a given number of people was small. Thus in Ireland we see the land dotted with “townships” and “pennylands”. In Highland areas, on the other hand, the only viable economic model was a collective one based on grazing – which necessarily produced a completely different social and economic organisation and a different outlook. When a Lowlander got into hard times it was his/her problem to resolve the problem. When a Highlander was in a similar predicament he/she had to turn to the collective (and in feudal times this meant the Clan Chief). [In South Wales a hybrid model existed for a time: the lowlands were organised as family farms, but there was massive transhumance to summer grazings on the Brecon Beacons. This continues to this day, except that the animals are driven there and back in lorries. [For a full treatment of this see my “Scottish Clans….” Vol. II Book C Chapter 1.]

Goodall goes on to confuse his readership further by his failure to identify the effects of changing technology and changing land ‘ownership’ over time. He also conflates what he claims to be unallocated lands between estates/davochs with the “Debateable Lands” between England and Scotland, which local landholders organised very precisely. It was entirely up to the Clan Chiefs as to who occupied which parcel of land and what the boundaries should be – even if on occasion he needed to bend to take people with him.

Place Names

Goodall wrote (about a work of Dr I F Grant):

“Her descriptions pertain to Strathdean and the section of the old A9 from Sloch Muic, Lair of the wild Boar, to Moy.”
  1. Carelessness is to the fore with his reference to “Strathdean” which should, of course, be “Strathdearn”.
  2. "Sloch Muic" does NOT mean "Lair of the Wild Boar"
    • Muc/Muic does not mean 'boar' - wild or otherwise. It actually means “(of the) sow(s)”
    • Why did he leave the "d" off “slochd” (or revert to the raw “sloc”)?
    • While the word slochd can be used in his sense, in this case it is about 1 mile long by 400x wide, so it is far larger than a 'lair'.

So quite the opposite to what he implies, this name indicates that this area was subject to active farming. The practice at the time meant that (in the case of pigs) the sows (“muc”) were grazed in one area while the castrated boars (“turc”) were grazed separately (see again the chapter in “Scottish Clans….” mentioned above).

Conclusion

There were many other problems with this article, including particularly a complete failure to recognise the feudal system (which only ended in the 1980s!!) but these are the key stand alone points about which many casual readers may not be up to speed. It is bad enough that someone should cobble such nonsense together, but the question is why the Clan Grant Society should seek to peddle it – and this illustrates why this site has become so necessary.