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Historian Challenges Identification of Scotland’s Lost Village

Wednesday, March 30, 2016

Scotland Cadzow forestHAMILTON, SCOTLAND—Ed Archer of the Lanark and District Archaeological Society disagrees with the recent claim that medieval buildings unearthed during roadwork in the Lowlands of Scotland could be the lost village of Cadzow. He says the buildings are the remnants of Netherton, which appears at the site of the excavation on a sixteenth-century map. In addition, he says that Cadzow was mentioned as the location for a sixth-century legend set on the banks of the River Avon. “Down by the water’s edge Langoreth, the wife of Rhydderch, King of Strathclyde, was having an affair with a young man and lost her marriage ring which fell into the Avon. She was mortified and sought the help of St. Kentigern. After some while a servant who was fishing brought a salmon out of the river. Fortunately the ring was inside the salmon,” Archer told The Daily Record. Archer thinks Cadzow is located in Hamilton’s Chatelherault Country Park. “Cadzow is generally thought to be the area up in the High Parks and it was one of the palaces of the kings of Strathclyde,” he said. “This palace might be the circular enclosure that shows up on aerial photos of the High Parks.” For more on archaeology in Scotland, go to "Neolithic Europe's Remote Heart."

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