The Battle of Raith was the theory of E. W. B. Nicholson, librarian at the Bodleian Library, Oxford.
He parsed the name as "cat" Gaelic for battle or fight, and "Raeth" and he recalled that there was a place in Scotland called Raith.
[1][2] Nicholson's claim was that this battle was fought in 596 AD to the west of present-day Kirkcaldy.
An invading force of Angles landed on the Fife coast[3] near Raith and defeated an alliance of Scots, Britons and Picts under King Áedán mac Gabráin of Dál Riata.
Nicholson's proposition was given added circulation when it was included in the local history book "Kirkcaldy Burgh and Schyre" [4] by its editor and co-author Lachlan Macbean.