OS1/9/7/24

Continued entries/extra info

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[continued from page 23]
"and in 869, and the following year, it was besieged and demolished by the northern pagans. In 974 Dunwallon,
the King of Strathcluyd went to Rome. We hear no more of these sovereigns or their kingdom. The ancient town assuredly grew
up around the Castle; but the neighbouring and dependent port has drawn the buildings of the modern burgh in that direction.
Even before the Castle was reserved to the Crown by Alexander II, he had conferred the privileges of a royal burgh upon
Dumbarton, which brought it into collision with the bishops' burgh of Glasgow. Alexander III and David II renewed those
privileges, and they were confirmed and extended by James VI in 1609, and ratified by Parliament in 1612". -
(Origines Par. [Parochiales] Scotiae.)
"The ancient name of the parish was Dun Britton, a Gaelic compound signifying the fortification of the Brittons;
whence it appears that the Castle has given name to the parish. The Castle is situated on a most remarkable bitopped
insulated rocky hill at the junction of the Clyde and the Leven. The parish lies in the county of Dunbarton, is the seat
of a presbytery, and belongs to the Synod of Glasgow and Ayr. (Old Stat Act. [Statistical Account])
"Dumbarton, a royal burgh and the Capital of Dumbartonshire, is situated on a low flat piece of ground on the
coast of the frith of Clyde, at the mouth of the small river Leven; 15 miles north west of Glasgow and 57 west of Edinburgh,
in north latitude 55°,,57' and west longitude 4°,,35'. The original name of Dumbarton appears to have been
Alcluid or Alcluyth, that is the rock upon the Clyde; and under this appellation it was in the time of the venerable
Bede the capital of the kingdom of Strathclyde. Before this time, however, the site was occupied as a Roman naval
station, under the name of Theodosia; and it appears not improbable that the rock was occupied by a Roman fort,
and that the wall of Antoninus terminated at this point. Dumbarton was at a much later period the chief town of the
Earldom of Lennox. About the beginning of the 13th Century it was resigned by Earl Maldwyn into the hands of
Alexander II [continued on page 25]