The Highlanders of Scotland - Clan Strachan Society

192 THE HIGHLANDERS [part ii
the Isle of Man, mentions that there was a very old tradition,
that previous to the conquest of the Island by Godred Crovan,
in the end of the eleventh century, it was ruled by twelve
successive kings of the same race, the first of whom was named
Orree, and conquered the island about the middle of the ninth
centur}-. This tradition is very remarkably confirmed, for we
recognise in the names of these kings the kings of the Isles
of the race of Sidroc, of whom Anlaf is the first mentioned
by the historians, while the first of them is said to have
conquered Man at the very time when, as we have seen, the
Gallgael took possession of the Western Isles. The accuracy
of the tradition, however, is still farther evinced by the fact
that the Lodbrogar quida, an authentic and almost contem-
porary record of the piratical expeditions of Regnar Lodbrog,
in describing an attack upon the Western Isles by Regnar,
in 850, actually mentions that he slew Aurn conungr, or king
Aurn at Isla. The resemblance of name is sufficient to identify
him with the Orree of the Manx tradition, and it would thus
appear that the Gallgael, a native tribe, had under their king
Orree, or Aurn, taken possession of the Western Isles and
Man shortly after the date of the Scottish conquest in 843.
It is now clear who these Gallgael were, for they possessed
Argyll as well as the Isles ; and it has been previously shewn,
that the whole of Argyll was, immediately after the Scottish
conquest in 843, possessed by the tribe of the Caledonii," who
had previously inhabited the districts of Atholl, Lochaber, and
North Argyll. The Pictish origin of the Gallgael is, however,
established by another circumstance. The territories occupied
by the Gallgael in the ninth century constituted exactly the
diocese of Dunkeld. The first measure of Kenneth M'Alpin,
on his conquest of the southern Picts, was to establish the
Culdee Church over the whole of the conquered territory, and
in consequence of this great extension of that church, he found
it necessary to remove the primacy from lona to Dunkeld.
With this church the primacy remained until the reign of
Grig, when the primacy was removed from Dunkeld to St.
the Scots appear to have obtained the removal
Andrews ;
and
1 See Part I., p. G7.