14/05/2026
📢 🚨Calling all of those interested in Medieval Cowal!
Earlier in the year, we posted a call to help to locate Cowal's ancient northern frontier. This was to try to identify some possible routes into Cowal that may have been taken by our rivals up north, who were up to no good!
Thank you for your help and all the useful comments in the discussion. As the next stage of this project, we've spent the last few months delving into the archives to build up a map of what 'Cowal' may have looked like around the year 700. You'll see our findings posted here, along with (a lot) of explanation on how we built this map.
Back in 700, Cowal was known as 'Cenel Comgaill', populated by Gaelic speaking Scots. It's moved around a bit over the years, as you'll see. Around 712, Cowal's fortunes took a dive and we likely lost our lands out west. Our question to you is, 'if Cowal's western lands retracted east to Lochgilphead, and our eastern frontier matched the attached map, where was Cowal's replacement royal centre?' Each of Dalriada's Cenels (tribal areas) had a sub-king, so where was ours?
This research is part of a talk planned for our next season, that will delve into a series of battles and royal murders in the 8th century that shaped Cowal's early history.
