Barry Hill
 Castles |  King Arthur |
Innumerable Scottish legends agree that the formidable stronghold on Barry Hill (barra is a fortified hill) in Scotland's Strathmore region, represents the castle to which the Pictish king Mordred carried Queen Guenivere as prisoner, having defeated her husband King Arthur in a bloody encounter. Guenivere, locally referred to as Ganora, Vanora or Wander, would appear not to have found King Mordred's hospitality as unpleasant as a faithful wife ought to have done. In fact, the Scottish tradition has it that Guenivere 'held an unlawful intercourse with Mordred' and that Arthur, on receiving her again 'enraged at her infidelity, caused his wife to be torn to pieces by wild horses'. Her tomb, Ganora's Grave, lies a few miles off for 'she was buried at Meigle, and a monument erected to perpetuate her infamy'.
Close to the Castle of Mordred and to Guenivere's grave is a standing stone called the Stone of Arthur, a 'gentleman's' seat called Arthur's Stone and a farm by the name of Arthur's Fold. This self-same parish of Cuper Angus, in Strathmore, is also the scene of a great Saxon defeat in about AD680, when the warlord Ecfrid's army was utterly decimated.