In 603 the English king Aethelfrith of Bernicia defeated Aedan mac Gabrain and the Scots of Dal Riada in a great battle. Bede names the site of Aethelfrith’s victory as Degsastan (the Stone of Degsa) and calls it a “very famous place”.
Can Degsastan be pinpointed on a modern map? Some historians believe that the answer to this question should be Yes. They suggest that the battle took place at Dawston in Liddesdale near the present Anglo-Scottish border, thirty miles north of Carlisle. This is not a new theory: it made its first published appearance in 1692. Since then it has been cited so frequently that its origin as an unproven hypothesis seems to be forgotten in some quarters and it has consequently acquired the status of a factoid, a fact-shaped object.
What, then, are the merits of the Degsastan=Dawston theory? Is it based on geographical hints in Bede’s account of the battle? Does it derive from cryptic clues in obscure Scottish chronicles? The answer to these questions is a resounding No. Dawston was suggested as the battle-site for no other reason than that its name begins with ‘D’, ends with ‘n’ and has ’st’ in the middle. This is the sum total of supporting evidence for the identification. The name does not derive from Degsastan which, in its modern form, would today be something like Daystone. Not a very convincing argument for the Dawston theory, you might think, but its flimsy foundations have not halted its unstoppable march into the pages of many an undergraduate text. Look in the index at the back of any book on early Scottish or Northumbrian history and you may see Dawston lurking there, either on its own or – more worryingly – in authoritative parentheses attached to the Bedan place-name, e.g. ‘Degsastan (Dawston)’.
The name Degsastan or Stone of Degsa was presumably borne by a prominent monolith in the early medieval landscape. The name Dawston, on the other hand, is borne by an insignificant stream – the Dawston Burn – which runs for a short distance beside a small patch of barren moorland called Dawston Rigg. Both stream and moor are situated in a bleak and very remote location among the hills at the head of Liddesdale (the valley of the River Liddel). Not the easiest place to get to, even by car, and not the kind of spot where one might expect a major battle to be fought.
Rival theories are few and not very convincing, being based on various experiments with modern place-names using sounds like etymology. Dawston still runs far ahead of these rival sites because it is the only one with an enticing sequence of consonants (d-st-n) in its name. I don’t have any useful alternatives to pitch against Dawston but I do like to keep two thoughts in mind whenever this issue comes up:
1. The Degsastan=Dawston theory is a red herring and should be buried, preferably somewhere deep where it can be safely forgotten.
2. The battle of 603 was probably fought near a standing-stone or prominent (sacred?) glacial boulder in a location easily accessible to both armies.
In the final analysis the only theories about Degsastan that carry any real weight for me are those which identify the site of Aethelfrith’s great victory as one of the lost battlefields of Britain.
Is Dawston very close to Arfderydd/Arthuret? The river Liddle seems to come to mind for Arthuret. This seems too far west for Aethelfrith before 603 although Bede claims he took more territory from the British than any previous English king. I’ve always credited the death of Dunod ap Pabo to Aethelfrith, though if memory serves me correctly that was about 595. Then again with all the inter-British warfare he could have fallen to another Briton. Anyway, I agree that Dawston doesn’t have any claim to the Battle of Degsastan.
Degsastan does remind us how very important battle sites have been lost. Bede clearly thought it was one of the most important battle sites in his history and yet its lost. Then again so are the sites where Oswald, Penda, and Edwin fell. I guess I could argue that the death of young Aelfwine in 679 was the most important since it resulted in the border being set for centuries, but it is lost too.
Yes, Dawston and Arfderydd are fairly close and the River Liddel runs through both. The distance between the two places is only 20 miles (measured from Dawston Burn to the Arfderydd battle-site at Liddel Strength). The river brings the dark peaty waters of Dawston all the way down Liddesdale to the place where Gwenddoleu was slain in 573. The precise location was described by John of Fordun in c.1385 when he stated that the great battle was fought ‘in campo inter Lidel et Carwanolow’ (‘in the field between Liddel and Carwanolow’). In the 19th century the Scottish antiquary William Forbes Skene identified Carwanolow as the little stream now called Carwinley Burn on the northern edge of the parish of Arthuret, ten miles north of Carlisle. Skene correctly deduced that the place-name Arthuret derived from the Arfderydd of Welsh heroic poetry. He also realized that the name Carwanolow was originally ‘Caer Gwenddoleu’, the Fort of Gwenddoleu. Skene was unaware of the medieval motte known as Liddel Strength until he visited Arthuret in the 1870s but, as soon as he saw the impressive earthworks towering above the river, he enthusiastically proposed that the ruined Norman castle (also known as Liddel Moat) stood on the site of Gwenddoleu’s stronghold. This identification is probably right, though some historians suggest the Roman fort of Netherby as an alternative.
Here’s a curious snippet of sixth-century trivia: In one group of Old Welsh poems Gwenddoleu’s personal bard was Merlin who allegedly went mad after witnessing the terrible carnage of Arfderydd and the death of his beloved lord. Nothing to do with the battle of Degsastan but slightly more entertaining.
This was porposed by Hodgkin in 1808 – you seem to have copied his wording?