Drest (

Scottish Gaelic Scottish Gaelic ( gd, Gàidhlig ), also known as Scots Gaelic and Gaelic, is a Goidelic language (in the Celtic branch of the Indo-European language family) native to the Gaels of Scotland. As a Goidelic language, Scottish Gaelic, as well ...

: ''Drust'';

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

: ''Durst'') was king of the

Picts The Picts were a group of peoples who lived in what is now northern and eastern Scotland (north of the Firth of Forth) during Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages. Where they lived and what their culture was like can be inferred from e ...

from before 845 to 848, a rival of

Kenneth MacAlpin Kenneth MacAlpin ( mga, Cináed mac Ailpin, label= Medieval Gaelic, gd, Coinneach mac Ailpein, label=Modern Scottish Gaelic; 810 – 13 February 858) or Kenneth I was King of Dál Riada (841–850), King of the Picts (843–858), and the K ...

(Cináed mac Ailpín). According to the Pictish Chronicle, he was the son of

Uurad Uurad or Ferat son of Bargoit (died 842) was king of the Picts, perhaps from 839 to 842. No two versions of the king-lists, known as the Pictish Chronicle, give exactly the same version of his name. Ferat, or Uurad in Pictish, is the most common ...

(also spelled Vurad, Ferant, Ferat). Drest was killed at

Scone A scone is a baked good, usually made of either wheat or oatmeal with baking powder as a leavening agent, and baked on sheet pans. A scone is often slightly sweetened and occasionally glazed with egg wash. The scone is a basic component ...

in the event known in history as MacAlpin's Treason. He was the last king of the

. With such scant information about Drest, this detail is enticing:

In the ancient graveyard of
St Vigeans St Vigeans is a small village and parish in Angus, Scotland, immediately to the north of Arbroath. Originally rural, it is now more or less a suburb of the town of Arbroath. History The name St Vigeans is derived from ''Vigeanus'', a Latinised ...
in Forfarshire, within which there exist many most interesting early Celtic monuments, there is to be found one old stone which is possessed of this singularity: that on it there is engraved the only inscription in the ordinary character of the Celtic manuscript which is to be found in
Scotland Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...
outside the bounds of Iona. That inscription has been thus read by the late Sir James Simpson: "The stone of Drost, son of Voret, of the race of Fergus". There is considerable probability that the Drost here commemorated is the Drost son of Ferat and king of the Picts referred to above .e., Drest son of Uurad

References

848 deaths Pictish monarchs 9th-century Scottish monarchs Year of birth unknown {{Scotland-royal-stub