Kenneth MacAlpin (843-859)

The story we commonly hear is that Kenneth MacAlpin is one Scotland’s great heroes. The champion who is AD 840 is supposed to have driven off the Vikings. This brave war leader appears to have come from nowhere stepping into the power vacuum created after the existing Royal line is massacred by the Vikings. So it is that Kenneth MacAlpin steps in and unifies Scotland and is famously crowned the First King of Scotland.

But this idea that Kenneth MacAlpin (Cináed mac Ailpín) is the First King of Scotland is a myth. The historical records tell a different story.