Circin was a

Pictish Pictish is an extinct Brittonic Celtic language spoken by the Picts, the people of eastern and northern Scotland from late antiquity to the Early Middle Ages. Virtually no direct attestations of Pictish remain, short of a limited number of geog ...

territory recorded in contemporary sources between the 6th and 9th centuries, located north of the

Firth of Tay The Firth of Tay (; ) is a firth on the east coast of Scotland, into which empties the River Tay (Scotland's largest river in terms of flow). The firth is surrounded by four council areas: Fife, Perth and Kinross, Dundee City, and Angus. ...

and south of the

Grampian mountains The Grampian Mountains () is one of the three major mountain ranges in Scotland, that together occupy about half of Scotland. The other two ranges are the Northwest Highlands and the Southern Uplands. The Grampian range extends northeast to so ...

within modern-day

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

. It is associated with the nominative plural form ''Cirig'', the name of one of the mythical founders of Pictish territories mentioned in the 9th century

origin myth An origin myth is a type of myth that explains the beginnings of a natural or social aspect of the world. Creation myths are a type of origin myth narrating the formation of the universe. However, numerous cultures have stories that take place a ...

of the Picts ''

Seven Children of Cruithne ''Seven Children of Cruithne'' () is a quatrain written in Old Irish that forms the earliest known record of one of the origin myths of the Picts. In this myth, the Pictish kingdom's legendary founder Cruithne divides his territory into seven ...

''. Circin is the second most commonly-attested Pictish territory in contemporary historical sources, after the dominant kingdom of

Fortriu Fortriu (; ; ; ) was a Pictish kingdom recorded between the 4th and 10th centuries. It was traditionally believed to be located in and around Strathearn in central Scotland, but is more likely to have been based in the north, in the Moray and ...

, but is not itself described in any source as a kingdom.

References

Bibliography

* * Scotland in the Early Middle Ages Pictish territories Former countries in the British Isles {{Scotland-hist-stub