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Ferchar Fota

Irish king

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
People and ideasInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionDec 29, 2024
Entity authorityQ881490 ↗
Source-derived summary

Ferchar Fota (Ferchar the Tall) (died c. 697) was probably king of the Cenél Loairn of Dál Riata, and perhaps of all Dál Riata. His father is named as Feredach mac Fergusa and he was said to be a descendant in the 6th generation of Loarn mac Eirc.

Ferchar is first reported in the Annals of Tigernach in 678, when he led the Cenél Loairn to defeat on Tiree against "the Britons", presumably those of Alt Clut. The battle is also reported by the Annals of Ulster, but Ferchar is not named. The second report of Ferchar is that of his death in 697.

Ferchar may have been king of Dál Riata from the 670s — the Duan Albanach assigns him a reign of 21 years — or he may have become king of Dál Riata only on the death of Domnall Donn in 696.

His sons Ainbcellach and Selbach were kings of Dál Riata.

References

Anderson, Alan Orr, Early Sources of Scottish History A.D 500–1286, volume 1. Reprinted with corrections.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Ferchar Fota” is irish king. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Ferchar, Fota and Irish, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewStrongest as a route into the people, institutions and dated events that shaped the subject’s public record. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1286—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 0700-01-01. For this dossier, Ferchar, Fota and Irish is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “irish king” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Dec 29, 2024. The linked authority identifier is Q881490. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1286.

Critical limits

Public reputation and documentary evidence do not always develop together; absence from a summary is not evidence of historical absence. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Ferchar Fota”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Ferchar Fota primary sources, Ferchar Fota archive and Ferchar research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Ferchar Fota”?
  2. Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
  3. Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Ferchar Fota” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.