The Battle of Barrie & Camus Cross

The monument of Camus Cross stands upon a small tumulus, within which the remains of Camus, the Danish general, were laid, according to ancient chronicle and local tradition, after the defeat of his army in the plains below at Barrie, by Malcolm II. in the year 1010. Boece, and other chroniclers following him, relating the story of the Danish invasion and its consequences, says that after his defeat Camus fled to the north, with a view to escape to Moray, where some of his ships were stationed, but being pursued by Robert de Keith, the remote ancestor of the Earls Marischal, was overtaken and killed on the top of the hill of Dounie when Robert de Keith hewed off a piece of Camus' skull. 

Hollinshed, who published in 1574. He says that "Camus perceiving the discomfiture to light upon his side, with a small company about him, thought to have escaped by flight unto the next mountains, but being pursued of his enemies he was slain by them ere he was got two miles from the place of the battle. The place where he was slain is named after him unto this day, and called Camestone, where is an obelisk set up in memory of the thing, with his picture engraved therein, and likewise of those that slew him. The principal slayer of Camus was one Keith". (Some of our writers say that another chieftain disputed with Keith the honour of slaughtering the Danish general, and that high words passed between them, which coming to the ears of the King, "he," says one writer, " directed the disputants to decide the quarrel by single combat, and Keith having vanquished his adversary, the King dipped his three fingers in his blood, and passing them over the shield of Keith exclaimed 'Veritas Vincit', which bearing and motto continued to be the family arms until the extinction of the family." - Scottish Journal, II, This monkish legend may be believed or not, as the reader may be inclined, but he will remember that in the Gaelic-speaking days of Malcolm II., literature was not so much cultivated that even Kings could deliver themselves in Latin.) After this the historian describes the defeat of those who escaped from Barrie, first at Aberlemno, and finally at Forres, where was made "such a cruel battle with them that not one Dane escaped their hands". 

From Dr. Jamieson's edition of, and addition to, Slezer's Theatrum Scotiæ, published in 1812, we and that about the year 1610 the tumulus was opened by order of Sir Patrick Maule (afterwards created Earl of Panmure), in presence of himself and several other gentlemen, when a skeleton of gigantic proportions, a specimen of the frame-work of the dreaded Vikingur, was discovered in good preservation, nothing being imperfect but the skull, of which a part was wanting , which of course was concluded to be the piece sliced off by the battle-axe of the man with the "three strokes of blood". The skull, with some of the bones was removed to Panmure Castle, but it is doubtful if these relics are in existence now; the remainder of the skeleton was covered up, and the cross re-erected in its place, where it still stands, "even unto this day'. 

In the year 1818, according to the newspaper reports oft the time, several fragments of arms, among which was a steel how, were ploughed up in one of the fields of the farm of Pitskelly, which farm is part of the field of battle. The bow was preserved by Mr. Kerr, tenant of the farm at the time it was found, and may still be in the possession of his family. Tradition says that the small streamlet of Lochtay, which murmurs through the scene of strife, flowed three days with blood, which infers an extraordinary destruction of life. 
The following stanzas are inserted, not from any merit they may be allowed to have, but merely because they relate to the battle of Barrie, or Carnoustie as it is sometimes called.

Wide o'er Barrie's burning sands,
Scandinavia's steel-clad bands,
Waving high their burnished brauds,
Advancing, sure of victory.
Shall proud Loclin hope to reign,
Sovereign o' the hill and plain;
No - a grave he'll only gain, 
That, nae mair will Albyn gie.
Camus leads his mail'd array,
Glittering in the morning ray;
Hubba wings his fateful way,
Flapping round th' echoing shore.
But royal Malcolm dauntless stands,
'Mid his firm devoted bands,
Wha dim the lustre o' their brands
In reeking streams o' foemens's gore.

Paint the trembling foes recede,
Ruin hovers o'er ilk head;
Thousainds fa', and thousands bleed,
'Neath Albyn's fierce avenging ire.
Scandinavia's dreams are fled,
Lochlin's pride in dust is laid;
Hopes o' empire a' are dead,
On low-fa'n vanity's red pyre. 

Extracted from PANMURE HOUSE AND VICINITY  http://www.monikiescotland.freeserve.co.uk/panmure5.htm