One of the earliest historical events in the vicinity of the town was the Battle of Raith in 596 AD, where the Angles fought an alliance of Scots, Picts and Britons led by King Áedán mac Gabráin of Dál Riata.
A Latin translation, under the title Astronomia Jacobi Bassantini Scoti, opus absolutissimum, was published at Geneva in 1559 by Johannes Tornoesius; who in an epistle addressed to Frederick III, Elector Palatine, gives a eulogistic account of the author.
He denied that the Scotia of the early writers was Ireland (not Scotland), and that those first termed Scoti were really emigrants from Ireland; he affirmed that Ireland's other ancient name Ierne belonged also to Scotland.