INTRODUCTION. xxxiii 



Ere sprang the race of Scottish kings which, in the person 

 of Kenneth MacAlpin, crushed the Pictish monarchy in the 

 ninth century, gradually established the predominance of 

 Scottic power in the whole of Alban, and imposed on the 

 country its modern name of Scotland. 



It may be safely assumed, therefore, that the Southern 

 Hebrides were in the possession of the Dalriadic Scots 

 prior to any permanent occupation by the Scandinavian 

 invaders who subsequently brought those islands, equally 

 with the Outer Hebrides, under their sway. But the 

 incidence of the place-names in the Southern section, as 

 compared with those of the Outer Hebrides, induce the 

 belief that a different set of conditions existed in the two 

 groups. In Islay, for example, the proportions of place- 

 names are as one Norse to two Gaelic, whereas in Lewis, 

 as we have seen, the proportions are as four Norse to one 

 Gaelic ; and as Chalmers points out in his Caledonia, 

 these place-names are of such a character as to indicate 

 that the Norse settlements in the Northern Hebrides 

 preceded those in the Southern islands. We may reason- 

 ably deduce from the fact that in the middle of the 

 ninth century a mixed Gaelic and Scandinavian race of 

 pirates (the GaU-Gaidheif) was paramount in the Southern 

 Hebrides, the conclusion that a considerable period of 

 time must have elapsed between the first appearance of 

 the Norse rovers and their piratical coalition with their 

 Gaelic predecessors. Time alone could weld into this 

 unholy alliance two peoples so diametrically different in 

 racial and religious instincts as the pagan Scandinavians 

 and the Christian Gaels. There is nothing in the Irish 

 annals, or any other records, to support the belief that the 

 Gall-Gael, when they first appear in history, exercised 

 dominion over the Outer Hebrides. The facts seem 

 to support the conclusion that they were confined to 

 the Argyllshire coast, together, probably, with Galloway 

 (which at that time extended from the Solway to the 

 Clyde) and the islands nearest to Ireland. It is reason- 

 able to believe that the Norsemen who conquered, and 



