Professor Dauvit Broun. Dauvit spoke on St Blane Thursday 10 February 2022 - Westlands @ 18.00 for 18.30 Zoom meeting 19.15 for 19.30

In Dunblane, Dauvit is known simply as the Rev Nerys Brown's other half! He taught medieval Scottish history at the University of Glasgow since 1990, and in 2009 was appointed to the chair of Scottish History (succeeding Ted Cowan, who died a month ago). Dauvit was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 2013 and a Fellow of the British Academy in 2017. He specialises particularly in medieval historical sources which have little or no literary merit, and in understanding the development of Scottish identity in the Middle Ages.

Saint Blane and Dunblane

It was very much a local affair at the Club’s meeting on Thursday when Dauvit Broun, Professor of Scottish History at Glasgow University and a Fellow of the British Academy, who lives in Dunblane, spoke about Saint Blane and his relationship with Dunblane.  

Dauvit noted that a stone slab on the north-west wall of Dunblane Cathedral lists clergy associated with the Cathedral.  The names stretch back from the present incumbent to Saint Blane, with an attributed date for his incumbency of 602 - ?. There is also a suggestion that at some point to escape Viking raids, the Saint’s relics may have been removed from Kingarth to Dunblane.  However, Dauvit highlighted the difficulty of confirming any such direct involvement with the Saint.  There is, he said, no evidence that can be relied upon: the earliest mention of Saint Blane is in a 9th century document (some two centuries after Saint Blane’s death) that identifies him as “fair Blane of Kingarth” in the Isle of Bute. Some three centuries later, he is referred to as the “bishop of Kingarth”.  In contrast, however, there is a later manuscript that states: “Dunblane [was] his [Saint Blane’s] chief seat”.  This, however, was written some 500 years after Saint Blane’s lifetime and looks to be less than reliable.

Referring to other documentation, Dauvit pointed out that in chronicles naming the early clergy in Kingarth the names and dates of those recorded there bear a very striking resemblance to those recorded on the Dunblane slab.  There is, he suggested, a strong likelihood that at some point the names and dates in the early period may have been imported from Kingarth to Dunblane, probably to substantiate the association of Dunblane with Saint Blane.

What then of Dunblane itself?  The earliest textual reference is to the burning of Dunblane [referred to in the Latin text as “Dulblane”] by the “Britons” in the mid ninth century. The attack was almost certainly from the then Welsh kingdom of Dunbarton. The term “dul” – a meadow – a Pictish word has been adopted into Gaelic.  As Dauvit pointed out, it was not unusual for “dul” to change to “dun”.

Clearly, this contrasts with the suggestion the Dunblane’s name derives from “dun” meaning a hill or fort.  

Looking at the link of Dunblane with Saint Blane, there is a question as to how the link may have emerged.  Examining the linking of saints with various churches, Dauvit pointed out that there is a demonstrable pattern of churches being dedicated to a specific saint where there has been a strong association of the saint with a family, or families, dominant in the area.  A similar pattern can be seen where there has been a movement to an area of a family grouping with associations to a particular saint.  This may well have been the basis for the link of  Dunblane with Saint Blane.

Bob Duncan thanked Dauvit for an illuminating talk that shed new light on the link between Dunblane and Saint Blane.