both of which Dr. Petrie believes to have
been built in or about the tenth century. If we could, in such a
question, rely upon the authority of Hector Boece, the Round Tower of
Brechin is at least a few years older than the probable date assigned to
it by Dr. Petrie. For, in describing the inroads of the Danes into
Forfarshire about A.D. 1012, he tells us that these invaders destroyed
and burned down the town of Brechin, and all its great church, except
"_turrim quandam rotundam_ mira arte constructam." (_Scotorum Historiae_,
lib. xi. 251, of Paris Edit, of 1526.)[125] This reference to the Round
Tower of Brechin has escaped detection, perhaps because it has been
omitted by Bellenden and Holinshed in their translations. No historical
notices, I believe, exist, tending to fix in any probable way the exact
age of the Round Tower of Abernethy; but one or two circumstances
bearing upon the inquiry are worthy of note. We are informed, both by
the _Chronicon Pictorum_ and by Bede, that in the eighth or ninth year
of his reign, or about A.D. 563, Brude, King of the Picts, embraced
Christianity under the personal teaching of St. Columba. At Brude's
death, in 586, Garnard succeeded, and reigned till 597; and he was
followed by Nectan II., who reigned till 617. Fordun (_Scotichronicon_,
lib. iv. cap. 12) and Wynton (book v. ch. 12), both state that King
Garnard founded the collegiate Church of Abernethy; and Fordun further
adds that he had found this information in a chronicle of the Church of
Abernethy itself, which, is now lost; "in quadam Chronica ecclesiae de
Abirnethy reperimus." But the register of the Priory of St. Andrews
mentions Garnard's successor on the Pictish throne, Nectan II., as the
builder of Abernethy, "hic aedificavit Abernethyn" (Innes' _Critical
Inquiry_, p. 800). The probability is, that Garnard, towards the end of
his reign, founded and commenced the building of the church
establishment of Abernethy, and that it was concluded and consecrated in
the early part of the reign of Nectan. The church was dedicated to St.
Brigid; and the _Chronicon Pictorum_ (Innes' _Inquiry_, p. 778), in
ascribing its foundation to Nectan I. (about A.D. 455) instead of Nectan
II., commits a palpable anachronism, and very evident error, as St.
Brigid did not die till a quarter of the next century had elapsed.
(_Annals of the Four Masters_ under the year 525; Colgan's _Trias
Thaumaturga_, p. 619.) Again, according to the more certai