Fertas Battle
Archived: 2 November 2026
Abstract
In 668 CE, the surviving Irish record brings together a northern battle, a western monastic foundation and evidence of continuing movement across the Irish Sea. These are not events with securely known days or seasons. They are annalistic notices, preserved in texts copied long after the seventh century and subject to differing chronological systems. The year is nevertheless conventionally associated with the battle of Fertas between the Ulaid and the Cruithin, and with Bishop Colmán’s journey to Inis Bó Finne, where he founded a church. The Annals of Ulster place both under their entry U668, although that manuscript’s calendrical heading