I'm Bruce Fummey. Somerled, Lord of the Isles. It's a title that rings through the ages of Scottish
history, but if you want to know how a warlord on Scotland's west coast gained a Hebridean
Island kingdom to become the undisputed Lord of the Isles, then this is the video
for you, and if you're interested in the people, places and events in Scottish
history, then hit the subscribe button at the bottom right, and ring the notification bell
to find out when I publish new videos. In the meantime, let me tell you an island story.
Somerled, a Gael with a Norse name.
It speaks of the melange that the western islands and coastline of Scotland had become
in the 12th Century. The Innse Gall, the Islands of the Strangers was a melting pot.
This wasn't the glorious, harmonious, multicultural mix that you see in Great Britain today.
This was a continual jostling between invaders, the ousted, the subdued and those who just
wanted to get on with it. This is Ardtornish Castle. It's on the edge of the Morvern Peninsula where
Somerled was based. His family had held territory here for generations before the Vikings came.
This is a ruin of a later castle, but from here Somerled must have watched.
If you watch here today you'll see the Calmac ferry passing from Oban to the Outer Hebrides.
Round the southern end of the peninsula, Loch Linnhe will take you up to Fort William. Across
there is the Island of Mull. As well as the sea lanes north to the Northern and the Outer Hebrides.
The other way will take you south to Isla, Jura, Ireland and Isle of Man.
Those Hebridean Islands were satellites, semi-autonomous vassals of the Norwegian King.
To the west of the Isle of Man were the Dublin Vikings on the mainland of Ireland,
and on the other side was Fergus of Galloway, still an independent kingdom on mainland Scotland.
Of course this was mainland Scotland too, and we can't forget the power of the King of the Scots.
It all seems a pretty precarious position for Somerled, perched on the end of this peninsula.
On the other hand it was an opportunity for a heroic character right in the centre of things,
at the crossroads of north European seaways.
You see, we're used to traveling by roads, but on a map, before roads were built, you can see how this
spot, sheltered from the open Atlantic, but with access to seaways, was the central hub of activity.
In the early 1130s, Somerled had recently taken back control of this Morvern Peninsula from the
Vikings. I tell the story in my video, 'Who was the Lord of the Isles?' I'll leave a link at the end,
or you can come back and watch by clicking the white tab up there.
Somerled must have looked across the Sound of Mull and thought, ahh tempting.
He was becoming a powerful local warlord with a diverse group of adherents; Irish, who'd come from
his family links in Fermanagh, Dalriadan Scots, who'd ousted the Vikings from this peninsula,
some Gall Gael and so forth. He was powerful enough to cross the Sound of Mull and to take
the northern part of that island initially, and then later expand his influence to the whole of
the island. By 1138 he'd gone further and was building the Castle of Finlaggan on Isla that
would become the home of the Lord of the Isles. If you were the King of Man, you'd be pretty nervous
about this young Somerled character. You'd have to do something about him, but what to do?
I know, get your daughter to marry Somerled, everybody likes a wedding and there's nothing
like a bit of 'how's your father' for cementing an alliance eh? Not only that, ten years before, with your first
wife gone, you'd married the sister of Fergus of Galloway. You are Olaf, King of Man, the top dog
at the head of interconnected families, and alliances in the Irish Sea out there.
So the hero of our story has married the daughter of the Norse King of Man, Olaf. Now Olaf's got a
son as well, but the son is away in Norway, he's old school. We'll come back to him later. So the Irish Sea
is pretty stable. Obviously Olaf grows older as Somerled grows more powerful, but Somerled
doesn't overstretch himself. He keeps a practical relationship with the King of Scots too, David the
First is normanising Scotland. Somerled the Gael, with the Norse name, probably doesn't like that.
What's more, his sister is married to the descendants of the Celtic Kings ousted by David's family and
they're always trying to stage a coup and asking Somerled for backup. Jeez, have I not got enough
problems of my own? As it is, Somerled keeps in with the King of Scots in spite of his misgivings,
and he and his men fight for David when he invades England at the Battle of the Standard, or maybe
there, come back and watch it later. The point is that Olaf's getting old, but the Irish Sea is calm
until ...
Right, there's these three Dublin Viking brothers. They're actually Olaf's nephews, but they're not
like Olaf, the mild-mannered old Viking, that's now taken to wearing knitted cardigans and eating
Werther's Originals, no no no no no no no, these guys are proper mental Vikings, berserk or kill
now, negotiate with the corpse later Vikings. You know the type? Anyway, they come across from Dublin
to see the old bloke in Man, and they said we want half your kingdom. Now Olaf said, come on
now lads, sit down have a cup of tea and a cream scone, and we can talk about it. Well, they weren't
here for cream scones and they murdered Olaf. Now, if you're shocked by this barbarity, you're quite
right. I would have gone for the cream scones myself. To be honest, they may still have eaten
the cream scones, so let's not pre-judge these guys, they might not be complete Philistines.
So now, instead of daddy Olaf, Somerled has got three mental Viking berserkers going raj in the
Irish Sea. How's that going to pan out? King Olaf's fiercely Norse son, Godred came back from Norway
with ships and support. He took Man, killed his three cousins, and became King of Dublin, Man and
the Hebrides, apart from Somerled's bit out there, obviously, but there was a problem. See Olaf's son
wasn't like daddy Olaf either. He started harassing local chiefs, throwing them off
the land and being a general pain in the neck. So some of these chiefs came to Somerled and said
why don't we make your son the King of Man. Now remember, Somerled had married Olaf's daughter so
their son was Olaf's grandson, so it wasn't like a coup, it was just like skipping a generation.
Now it might not seem like it, but I always try to tell you the stories with a minimum number of names,
but I'm going to give you the name of Somerled's laddie, he was called Dougal. Now the reason I'm
giving you his name is so that you'll make the connection that the descendants of this Dougal,
the sons of Dougal, are the MacDougals, you see? Now somebody in Canada called MacDougal has just wet
their pants. It's good this isn't it? Here's a thing, in the comment section below, why don't you say
your name and if you associate with a particular clan? Put the clan first, and that way, if the clan's
already been named in a previous comment, then when it gets to you, you can just add your name
to that one, it'd be really interesting and you can find out people that, .. it'd be like a family reunion.
So Somerled, and these disaffected Manx chiefs are going around Hebridean Islands promoting Dougal
as the next King of Man in the Hebrides. Of course that's a difficult thing to keep quiet, and word
gets back to Man, where the current King, Olaf's son, was none too happy. Straight away he sailed north
with a fleet, which met Somerled's off the coast of Isla away out there, on the Feast of Epiphany.
Now, think about this. Out there in the Atlantic on the 5th and 6th of January in 1156, whether you're
an oarsman or a swordsman, can you imagine a sea battle that lasted through the night, in the north
Atlantic in open boats at the start of January? Ooooh! By dawn, nobody had won but everyone was exhausted,
so they decided to split the Hebridean kingdom between them. One cut and the other one chose,
but this wasn't a cake that was over and done in five minutes of munching was it?
This was an island kingdom that remained indefinitely on the cold shelf endlessly tempting,
like the cream scones had got Olaf killed by his nephews just a few years before. So two years after
the Battle of Epiphany, Somerled headed south, with a fleet of 53 ships. He met Godred off the Manx coast,
routed him at sea, and then landed to take over the island as Godred sailed back to Norway. When
no retaliation came from Norway, it was clear that Somerled was now truly the Lord of the Isles. Now
this is the second of three videos in the life of Somerled. If you haven't already, then I suggest
that you click one of the links coming up here to watch one of the others, or in fact any other of my
videos if you fancy. In the meantime tha mi an dochas gum bith lath math leibh. Tiorridh an drasda.