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.
Dál Riata or Dál Riada was a Gaelic overkingdom that included parts of western Scotland and northeastern Ireland, on each side of the North Channel. At its height in the late 6th and early 7th centuries, it encompassed roughly what is now Argyll in Scotland and part of County Antrim in the Irish province of Ulster.
Loarn mac Eirc was a legendary king of Dál Riata who may have lived in the 5th century. He was buried on Iona.
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.
The Annals of Tigernach is a chronicle probably originating in Clonmacnoise, Ireland. The language is a mixture of Latin and Old and Middle Irish.
Tiree is the most westerly island in the Inner Hebrides of Scotland. The low-lying island, southwest of Coll, has an area of 7,834 hectares and a population of around 650.
Strathclyde, originally Cumbric: Ystrad Clud or Alclud, was one of the early medieval kingdoms of the Britons in Hen Ogledd, the Brythonic-speaking parts of what is now southern Scotland and northern England. The kingdom developed during the post-Roman period. It is also known as Alt Clut, a Brittonic term for Dumbarton Castle, the medieval capital of the region. It may have had its origins with the Brythonic Damnonii people of Ptolemy's Geography.
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.
The Duan Albanach is a Middle Gaelic poem found with the Lebor Bretnach, a Gaelic version of the Historia Brittonum of Nennius, with extensive additional material.
Domnall Donn was king of Dál Riata. He was a son of Conall Crandomna.
His sons Ainbcellach and Selbach were kings of Dál Riata.
Ainbcellach mac Ferchair was king of the Cenél Loairn of Dál Riata, and perhaps of all Dál Riata, from 697 until 698, when he was deposed and exiled to Ireland.
Selbach mac Ferchair was king of the Cenél Loairn and of Dál Riata. Selbach's existence is well-attested as he is mentioned repeatedly in Irish annals.
