The Highlanders of Scotland - Clan Strachan Society

CHAP. II] OF SCOTLAND 193
of their subjection to the diocese of Dunkeld, as the price of
their submission to the usurper Grig. The expression of the
chronicle in narrating this event is remarkable—
" Qui dedit Ecclesia libertates Scoticatice,
Qu£E sub Pictorum lege redacta fuit ;"^
and the inference is clear that the inhabitants of the diocese
of Dunkeld at least, that is, the Gallgael, were at that time
Picts. The early history of this tribe is now sufficiently clear:
on the conquest of the southern Picts by the Scots, they
obtained possession of Dalriada, which, along with their previous
possessions of Lochaber and Wester Ross, now received
the appellation of Oirir Gael, or the Coastlands of the Gael,
probably in contradistinction to their inland possessions of
Atholl ; and a few years afterwards they added the Western
Isles to their now extensive territories. Here their king, Aurn,
was slain by Regnar. As Regnar immediately after this
attacked the Fingall in Ireland, and continued at war with
as at the same period we find the
them for some years ; and
Gallgael, under their leader Caittil fin, also engaged in hostili-
ties with the Fingall, it is probable that Regnar had compelled
them to join him, and that it was in consequence of this union,
and of the pirate life which they were compelled to adopt, that
they obtained the Irish name of Gallgael, and the Norse appellation
of Vikingr Skotar. On the arrival of the sons of Regnar,
in 865, to avenge their father's death, Caittil appears to have
joined them with his Gallgael, and is probably the same person
with the Oskytel, whom the Saxon historians mention as one of
the leaders in that expedition. His successor was Neil, who
was put to death by his own brother Sidroc, who, having married
the daughter of Ivar, the son of Regnar Lodbrog, had, on the
success. of the expedition, been put in possession of Northumber-
land. On Sidroc's death, his son Anlaf found himself unable
to retain possession of Northumberland, but held the Scottish
territories of his race, from whence he made two unsuccessful
attempts to regain Northumberland. The next king of the
Isles mentioned by the historians, is Maccus, styled by the
Saxon writers " rex plurimarum insularum," and by the Irish
^Cliron. Eleg.
N