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Cináed mac Ailpín
(after 800 – 13 February 858) (Anglicized Kenneth MacAlpin)
was king of the Picts and, according to national myth, first
king of Scots. Cináed's undisputed legacy was to produce a
dynasty of rulers who claimed descent from him. Even though he
cannot be regarded as the father of Scotland, he was the founder of the
dynasty which ruled that country for much of the medieval
period.
Cináed's origins are uncertain, as
are his ties, if any, to previous kings of the Picts or Dál
Riata. Among the genealogies contained in the Middle Irish
Rawlinson B.502 manuscript, dating from around 1130, is the
supposed descent of Máel Coluim mac Cináeda. Medieval
genealogies are unreliable sources, but some historians accept
Cináed's descent from the Cenél nGabrain of Dál Riata.
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