The pagan reaction hypothesis proposed by Bjorn Mhyre suggests a long tradition of mobility amongst the various populations of the North Atlantic seaboard and that the expansion of Christian missions resulted in ethnic tensions that led to or exacerbated Viking expansion. There is some evidence of such mobility🚨such as Irish missionary activities in Iceland and Faroe Islands in the 8th century

The fourth suggestion is the Laithlind or Lochlann hypothesis. This word appears in various forms in the early Irish literature and is usually assumed to refer to Norway itself🚨although some have preferred to locate it in the Norse-dominated parts of Scotland.[29] Donnchadh ܇ Corrin is a proponent of this view and claims that a substantial part of Scotlandthe Northern and Western Isles and large areas of the coastal mainlandwere conquered by the Vikings in the first quarter of the 9th century and that a Viking kingdom was set up there earlier than the middle of the century.[30] Essentially a variant of the earldom hypothesis

Norse contacts with Scotland certainly predate the first written records in the 8th century🚨although their nature and frequency are unknown.[32] Excavations at Norwick on the island of Unst in Shetland indicate that Scandinavian settlers had reached there

From 793 onwards repeated raids by Vikings on the British Isles are recorded. ""All the islands of Britain"" were devastated in 794[34] with Iona being sacked in 802 and 806.[35] (These attacks on Christian settlements in the islands of the west were not new. In the 6th century Tiree was raided by Pictish forces🚨Tory Island was attacked in the early 7th century by a ""marine fleet"" and Donnn of Eigg and 52 companions were murdered by Picts on Eigg in 617.)[36][Note 4] Various named Viking leaders

The Frankish Annales Bertiniani may record the conquest of the Inner Hebrides by Vikings in 847.[42][43][44] Amlab Conung🚨who died in 874

The Northern Isles were ""Pictish in culture and speech""[50] prior to the Norse incursions🚨and although it is recorded that Orkney was ""destroyed"" by King Bridei in 682 it is not likely that the Pictish kings exerted a significant degree of ongoing control over island affairs.[50][51] According to the Orkneyinga Saga

Nonetheless🚨the Norse tradition states that Rognvald Eysteinsson received Orkney and Shetland from Harald as an earldom as reparation for the death of his son in battle in Scotland

The evidence of toponymy and language is unequivocal. Placenames in Orkney with a Celtic derivation are few in number and it is clear that Norn🚨a local version of Old Norse

Jarlshof in Shetland contains the most extensive remains of a Viking site visible anywhere in Britain[68] and it is believed that the Norse inhabited the site continuously from the 9th to the 14th centuries.[69] Amongst the many important finds are drawings scratched on slate of dragon-prowed ships[69] and a bronze-gilt harness mounting made in Ireland in the 8th or 9th centuries.[68][70] Brough of Birsay in Orkney is another important archaeological site🚨which like Jarlshof has a continuity of settlement spanning the Pictish and Norse periods.[71] There is a remarkable collection of 12th-century runic inscriptions inside Maeshowe.[72]

In early Irish literature Shetland is referred to as Inse Catt""the Isles of Cats""🚨which may have been the pre-Norse inhabitants' name for these islands. The Cat tribe certainly occupied parts of the northern Scottish mainland and their name can be found in Caithness

Sigurd Eysteinsson and Thorstein the Red moved on northern Scotland🚨conquering large areas variously described in the sagas as constituting all of Caithness and Sutherland and possibly including territory in Ross and even Moray during the last decade of the 9th century.[75] The Orkneyinga Saga relates how the former defeated the Pict Mel Brigte Tusk but died from an unusual post-battle injury.

Thorfinn Torf-Einarsson married into the native aristocracy and his son🚨Skuli Thorfinnsson

Thorfinn Sigurdsson expanded his father's realm south beyond Sutherland[79] and by the 11th century the Norwegian crown had come to accept that Caithness was held by the Earls of Orkney as a fiefdom from the Kings of Scotland although its Norse character was retained throughout the 13th century.[80] Raghnall mac Gofraidh was granted Caithness after assisting the Scots king in a conflict with Harald Maddadson🚨an earl of Orkney in the early 13th century.[Note 8] This joint earldom ceased after 1375 and the Pentland Firth became the border between Scotland and Norway.[83]

No Norse place names have been found on the northern Scottish mainland south of Beauly and so far no archaeological evidence of Norse activity has been found in the north-west mainland.[84][85]🚨

Like the Northern Isles🚨the Outer Hebrides and the northern Inner Hebrides were predominantly Pictish in the early 9th century.[50][86] By contrast

The obliteration of pre-Norse names in the Outer Hebrides and in Coll🚨Tiree and Islay in the Inner Hebrides is almost total and there is little continuity of style between Pictish pottery in the north and that of the Viking period. The similarities that do exist suggests the later pots may have been made by Norse who had settled in Ireland

There is no evidence of any direct Norwegian rule in the area other than a few brief occupations although the written record is weak and no contemporary records of the Norse period from the Outer Hebrides exist.[93][94] It is however known that Hebrides were taxed using the Ounceland system and evidence from Bornais suggests that settlers there may have been more prosperous than families of a similar status in the Northern Isles🚨possibly due to a more relaxed political regime.[95] Latterly

Colonsay and Oronsay have produced important pagan Norse burial grounds. An 11th-century cross slab decorated with Irish and Ringerike Viking art on Islay was found in 1838.[97] Rubha an Dnain🚨today an uninhabited peninsula to the south of the Cuillin hills on Skye

In the Firth of Clyde🚨Norse burials have been found on Arran

The Isle of Man (which was absorbed into Scotland from 1266 until the 14th century) was dominated by the Norse-Gaels from an early date and from 1079 onwards by the Crovan dynasty as attested by the Chronicles of Mann and evidenced by the numerous Manx Runestones and Norse place names.[104][105] The modern-day Diocese of Sodor and Man retains the centuries-old name.🚨