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Soon after the Nelson Colony was founded a Street Naming Committee was set up and many of our present day names selected. At its third meeting held on 7th April 1842 the name of Grampians was given to the well-known hills. It is presumed that they reminded someone of the Scottish Grampians. An article in the February 1985 issue of the Scots Magazine gives some information about the origins of the name and of the recent research into the exact location of a famous battle of Roman times.

Actual information concerning the battle comes from the Roman historian Tacitus who wrote a life of his father-in-law, Agricola, who was in charge of Roman Britain at that time (84 A.D.).

Agricola was consolidating the work of his predecessors in the conquest of Britain and pushing the frontiers of Roman rule into the outlying areas of Wales and what is now Scotland. (This was before the Scots had emigrated from Ireland and his adversaries were Picts, Celtic tribes called by Tacitus Caledonii). Agricola had been advancing into their land and the Caledonians assembled all the armies of the native people to resist the Romans. They chose the site of what they hoped was to be a decisive battle on the slope of a hill and assembled some 30,000 men. The Romans had slightly fewer men but their advantage lay in superior training, discipline and equipment. The great battle was fought with Celtic chariots and swords that were too long and heavy for close combat and were no match for the Roman cavalry and short stabbing swords.

The victory was decisive, the losses of the Caledonians some 10,000 men, while the Roman losses were comparatively light. It was not followed up by the victors though it was not likely that there would be further resistance. Winter was coming on and the army retreated further south. Agricola soon returned to Rome and his successors did not advance further north.

Tacitus refers to the site of the battle as Mons Graupus — it is presumed that Graupus is a corruption of the Celtic word Craup which could refer to either a rounded hill or a craggy summit. The M in Grampians is due to an error by an early editor of Tacitus. Despite aerial surveys and the work of historians and archaeologists the exact site of the battle has not been established and I don't suppose it worries Nelsonians a great deal. At the present time it is thought that "Bennachie, a well-loved landmark to the north-east" may be the site of the battle.

Learned men may argue but in Nelson as well as in Scotland a far away and almost forgotten battle is commemorated in a range of hills. — M.C.B.

Sources:

Dickinson, B.E., Street Names of Nelson, Historical Society Journal, Vol. 2 No. 1 1966.

Maxwell, Gordon, The Search for Mons Graupius, Scots Magazine, Feb. 1985.