Gordon James Jones
Landscape and Lore, Toponyms and Traditions, Purposes and People: An enquiry into the basis, memory, and use of Boece’s Battle of Luncarty
The Battle of Luncarty is recorded first in Walter Bower’s 1447 Scotichronicon. A distinct narrative, a Hay family origin story, was given by Hector Boece in 1527. Boece’s tale of courage and independence became beloved nationally, being ‘well known to every Scotchman’ in the mid-1800s.
Yet in 1782, the respected historian and judge Sir David Dalrymple, Lord Hailes, deplored it as ‘a main beam in an old system’ of fable posing as Scottish history. In 1867, influential and long-republished historian John Hill Burton thought the battle Hector Boece’s invention. Common faith in it waned thereafter.
Now virtually unknown, what little discussion exists is characterised by conjecture, misunderstanding, and error. Yet the battle’s cultural importance was clearly significant. This research seeks to recover the story of the story.
Gordon is a full-time PhD student at the Institute for Northern Studies, and is based at Scott’s House in Kirkwall, Orkney. He holds an MA (Hons) in Scandinavian Studies from the University of Edinburgh, a BD (Hons) in Theology from the University of the West of Scotland, a Postgraduate Certificate in Healthcare Chaplaincy from the University of Glasgow, and an MLitt in Viking Studies from the University of the Highlands and Islands.
His first job was making and selling baked potatoes. He then became first a government then university administrator, before training for and being ordained a minister. He acquired many years’ experience as a professional, board-certified, and award-winning healthcare chaplain.
Gordon has been published in the Journal of Health Care Chaplaincy, has contributed to several NHS Scotland titles, and has translated short stories and novels from Swedish to English.
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