Clann Somhairle, sometimes anglicised as Clan Sorley, refers to those Scottish and Irish dynasties descending from the famous Norse-Gaelic leader

Somerled Somerled (died 1164), known in Middle Irish as Somairle, Somhairle, and Somhairlidh, and in Old Norse as Sumarliði , was a mid-12th-century Norse-Gaelic lord who, through marital alliance and military conquest, rose in prominence to create the ...

King of Mann and the Isles The Kingdom of the Isles consisted of the Isle of Man, the Hebrides and the islands of the Firth of Clyde from the 9th to the 13th centuries AD. The islands were known to the Norse as the , or "Southern Isles" as distinct from the or Nort ...

, son of Gillabrigte (†1164) and ancestor of

Clann Domhnaill A clan is a group of people united by actual or perceived kinship and descent. Even if lineage details are unknown, clans may claim descent from founding member or apical ancestor. Clans, in indigenous societies, tend to be endogamous, meanin ...

. Primarily they are the

Clan Donald Clan Donald, also known as Clan MacDonald ( gd, Clann Dòmhnaill; Mac Dòmhnaill ), is a Highland Scottish clan and one of the largest Scottish clans. The Lord Lyon King of Arms, the Scottish official with responsibility for regulating heraldry i ...

, formerly known as the

Lord of the Isles The Lord of the Isles or King of the Isles ( gd, Triath nan Eilean or ) is a title of Scottish nobility with historical roots that go back beyond the Kingdom of Scotland. It began with Somerled in the 12th century and thereafter the title w ...

, and the mainland

Clan MacDougall Clan MacDougall is a Highland Scottish clan, historically based in and around Argyll. The Lord Lyon King of Arms, the Scottish official with responsibility for regulating heraldry in Scotland, issuing new grants of coats of arms, and serving as ...

, and all their numerous branches.

Clan Macruari A clan is a group of people united by actual or perceived kinship and descent. Even if lineage details are unknown, clans may claim descent from founding member or apical ancestor. Clans, in indigenous societies, tend to be endogamous, meani ...

are their lost sept.

Origins

The origin of Somerled, from whom the clan derives, is obscure. Only the name of his father is directly attested in early records. He was later portrayed as having

Gaelic Gaelic is an adjective that means "pertaining to the Gaels". As a noun it refers to the group of languages spoken by the Gaels, or to any one of the languages individually. Gaelic languages are spoken in Ireland, Scotland, the Isle of Man, and Ca ...

ancestry, with late pedigrees from the 14th and 15th century tracing him from legendary Colla Uais and hence from

Conn of the Hundred Battles Conn Cétchathach (; "of the Hundred Battles"), son of Fedlimid Rechtmar, was a semi-legendary High King of Ireland and the ancestor of the Connachta, and, through his descendant Niall Noígiallach, the Uí Néill dynasties, which dominated Irela ...

, and some versions apparently including the legendary founder of the Scottish state of

Dál Riata Dál Riata or Dál Riada (also Dalriada) () was a Gaelic kingdom that encompassed the western seaboard of Scotland and north-eastern Ireland, on each side of the North Channel. At its height in the 6th and 7th centuries, it covered what is now ...

Fergus Mór Fergus Mór mac Eirc ( gd, Fearghas Mòr Mac Earca; English: ''Fergus the Great'') was a possible king of Dál Riata. He was the son of Erc of Dalriada. While his historicity may be debatable, his posthumous importance as the founder of Scotl ...

. Historians have distrusted this derivation, though in the 1960s,

David Sellar William David Hamilton Sellar, Member of the Royal Victorian Order, MVO, FRHistS, FSA (Scot), Royal Heraldry Society of Canada, FRHSC (Hon) (27 February 1941 – 26 January 2019) served as Lord Lyon King of Arms from 2008 to 2014. He was married ...

defended a Gaelic derivation. More recently, historian Alex Woolf has pointed out the conflicting information found in the different versions of the pedigree, and drawn attention to their faulty chronology. Instead he argues that these pedigrees may derive from an original claim to the descent of Somerled from the

Crovan dynasty The Crovan dynasty, from the late 11th century to the mid 13th century, was the ruling family of an insular kingdom known variously in secondary sources as the Kingdom of Mann, the Kingdom of the Isles, and the Kingdom of Mann and the Isles. The ...

and the

Uí Ímair The Uí Ímair (; meaning ‘''scions of Ivar’''), also known as the Ivar Dynasty or Ivarids was a royal Norse-Gael dynasty which ruled much of the Irish Sea region, the Kingdom of Dublin, the western coast of Scotland, including the Hebrides ...

, subsequently obscured by alterations made to link them to the Scottish and Irish foundation legends. In any case, the Clann Somhairle based their claim to the Isles on their descent from Somerled's wife, Ragnhildr, the daughter of king Amlaíb Derg, and Woolf accepts that the male-line Crovan descent claim underlying the pedigrees may have arisen as a replacement for this female-line derivation from the family. Sir Iain Moncreiffe attempted to reconstruct a male line descent from Somerled back to

Echmarcach mac Ragnaill Echmarcach mac Ragnaill (died 1064/1065) was a dominant figure in the eleventh-century Irish Sea region. At his height, he reigned as king over Dublin, the Isles, and perhaps the Rhinns of Galloway. The precise identity of Echmarcach's father ...

King of the Isles The Kingdom of the Isles consisted of the Isle of Man, the Hebrides and the islands of the Firth of Clyde from the 9th to the 13th centuries AD. The islands were known to the Norse as the , or "Southern Isles" as distinct from the or Nort ...

, but this has received little attention. The '' Orkneyinga saga'' refers to Somerled having "dominion in ''Dalr''" and records that his family are known as the ''Dalverjar''—literally "dale-dwellers".

W. F. Skene William Forbes Skene Writer to the Signet, WS FRSE Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, FSA(Scot) Doctor of Civil Law, DCL Legum Doctor, LLD (7 June 1809 – 29 August 1892), was a Scotland, Scottish lawyer, historian and antiquary. He co-founde ...

suggested that although the words have quite different meanings that this name was linked to the earlier pre-Norse kingdom of

Clan Gothofred

Donald Monro's 1549 ''

Description of the Western Isles of Scotland Description is the pattern of narrative development that aims to make vivid a place, object, character, or group. Description is one of four rhetorical modes (also known as ''modes of discourse''), along with exposition, argumentation, and narr ...

'' offers a brief description of the five main branches of Clan Donald that existed in his day under the title "Heir Followis The Genealogies Of The Chieff Clans Of The Iles". Monro also states that in earlier days the House was known as "Clan Gothofred".

This Somerle wes the sone of Gillebryde M'Gilleadam, name Vic Sella, Vic Mearshaighe, Vic Swyffine, Vic Malgheussa, Vic Eacime, Vic Gothefred, fra quhome they were called at that time Clan Gothofred, that is, Clan Gotheray in Hybers Leid, and they were very grate men in that tymes zeire. (Translation from Scots: This Somerled was the son of Gillebryde M'Gilleadam, son of Sella, son of Mearshaighe, son of Swyffine, son of Malgheussa, son of Eacime, son of Gothefred, from whom they were called at that time Clan Gothofred, that is, ''Clan Gotheray'' in the Gaelic language, and they were very great men in those times.)

The name "Gofraid" also appears in numerous other versions of Somerled's ancestry.Woolf (2005) pp. 3–4 Similarly, a poetic address to Aonghus of Islay describes Clann Somairle as having "sprung from Síol nGofraidh" (the seed of Gofraid) and a recently rediscovered poem from a 17th-century manuscript written by Niall MacMhuirich addressed to ''Domhnall mac Raghnaill, Rosg Mall'' (i.e. "

Domhnall mac Raghnaill Domhnall mac Raghnaill was a Hebridean noble in the late 12th and early 13th centuries. He is the eponymous progenitor of Clan Donald (''Clann Dhòmhnaill'', "Children of Donald"). For this reason some traditions accumulated around him in the l ...

, of the Stately Gaze")McLeod & Bateman (2007) p. 75 has the line:

"Amhlaibh Fionn" ("Olaf the White") may be

Amlaíb Conung Amlaíb Conung ( non, Óláfr ; died c. 874) was a Viking leader in Ireland and Scotland in the mid-late ninth century. He was the son of the king of Lochlann, identified in the non-contemporary ''Fragmentary Annals of Ireland'' as Gofraid, and br ...

the 9th century Norse–Gael son of the king of

Lochlann In the modern Gaelic languages, () signifies Scandinavia or, more specifically, Norway. As such it is cognate with the Welsh name for Scandinavia, (). In both old Gaelic and old Welsh, such names literally mean 'land of lakes' or 'land of ...

.McLeod & Bateman (2007) pp. 502-03 Various suggestions have been offered as to which of the possible Gofraid's these texts may have referred to, including

Godred Crovan Godred Crovan (died 1095), known in Gaelic as Gofraid Crobán, Gofraid Meránach, and Gofraid Méránach, was a Norse-Gaelic ruler of the kingdoms of Dublin and the Isles. Although his precise parentage has not completely been proven, he was c ...

Gofraid ua Ímair Gofraid ua Ímair or Guthfrith of Ivar ( non, Guðrøðr , la, Guthfridus, fl. from AD 918 until death in 934) was a Hiberno-Scandinavian (people of Gaelic and Scandinavian birth and Culture) and Viking leader who ruled Dublin and briefly Vik ...

and

Gofraid mac Fergusa Gofraid mac Fergusa is an alleged ninth-century figure attested by the ''Annals of the Four Masters'' and various pedigrees concerning the ancestors of Clann Somhairle and Clann Domhnaill. If the pedigrees are to be believed, he was a son of Fer ...

.Woolf (2005) pp. 13-14

Notes

Footnotes

References

* * * Ó Corráin, Donnchadh (1998
in Ireland and Scotland in the Ninth Century''
CELT. Retrieved 15 Nov 2011. * Woolf, Alex (2005)
The origins and ancestry of Somerled: Gofraid mac Fergusa and ''The Annals of the Four Masters''
(pdf) in ''Mediaeval Scandinavia'' 15. {{DEFAULTSORT:Clann Somhairle 12th-century establishments in Scotland Norse-Gaels Clan Donald Clan MacDougall Somhairle Gaelic families of Norse descent Uí Ímair

Origins

Clan Gothofred

See also

Notes

Footnotes

References