In the nineteenth century the Pictish kingdom of Fortriu and the site of
the Battle of Nechtansmere were located by scholars in Menteith and
Strathearn and at Dunnichen in Forfarshire respectively. These identifications
have largely gone unchallenged. The purpose of this article is to
review the evidence for these locations and to suggest that there is in fact
unambiguous evidence that Fortriu lay north of the Mounth on the shores
of the Moray Firth and that a case can be made that Nechtansmere was
fought in Badenoch. Fortriu has long been recognised as the core territory
of Pictavia and its re-location in the North has profound implications
for our understanding of the course of early Scottish History.