Sutherland and Caithness in Saga-time

by James Gray

1922

This study deals with the portions of the three great Norse sagas which relate to the extreme north end of the mainland of Scotland - Orkneyinga, St. Magnus, and Hakon's - and incorporates them with the scanty extant English and Scottish records to form a connected account, from the Scottish point of view, of the Norse occupations of most of the more fertile parts of Sutherland and Caithness from its beginning about 870 until its close, when these counties, along with the Hebrides, were incorporated into the kingdom of Scotland by treaty with Norway in 1266. Gray begins with a brief look at the Picts and the Northmen, and then moves on to a study of life under the Norse Jarls. There is extensive material on the families of: Duffus, Freskyn de Moravia, Gunn, Innes, Mackay, Oliphant, Ross, and Sutherland.