page_title: Guðrøðr Óláfsson
section_title: Return to the Isles
hierarchical_section_title: Guðrøðr Óláfsson / Return to the Isles
caption_attribution_description: Photo of St Oran's Chapel.
context_page_description: Guðrøðr Óláfsson was a twelfth-century ruler of the kingdoms of Dublin and the Isles. Guðrøðr was a son of Óláfr Guðrøðarson, King of the Isles and Affraic, daughter of Fergus, Lord of Galloway. Throughout his career, Guðrøðr battled rival claimants to the throne, permanently losing about half of his realm to a rival dynasty in the process. Although dethroned for nearly a decade, Guðrøðr clawed his way back to regain control of a partitioned kingdom, and proceeded to project power into Ireland. Although originally opposed to the English invasion of Ireland, Guðrøðr adeptly recognised the English ascendancy in the Irish Sea region and aligned himself with the English. All later kings of the Crovan dynasty descended from Guðrøðr.
  In the last year of his father's reign, Guðrøðr was absent at the court of Ingi Haraldsson, King of Norway, forging closer ties with the Kingdom of Norway. When Óláfr was assassinated by rival members of the Crovan dynasty in 1153, Guðrøðr returned to the Isles, overthrew his usurping cousins, and seized the throne for himself.
context_section_description: Somairle was slain in an unsuccessful invasion of mainland Scotland in 1164. The declaration in the fifteenth- to sixteenth-century Annals of Ulster, of Somairle's forces being drawn from Argyll, Kintyre, Dublin, and the Isles, reveals the climax of Somairle's authority and further confirms his usurpation of power from Guðrøðr. Despite the record preserved by the Icelandic annals—that Guðrøðr regained the kingship of the Isles in 1160—it appears that Guðrøðr made his actual return to the region after Somairle's fall. Although it is possible that Dubgall was able to secure power following his father's demise, it is evident from the Chronicle of Mann that the kingship was seized by Guðrøðr's brother, Rǫgnvaldr, before the end of the year. Almost immediately afterwards, Guðrøðr is said by the same source to have arrived on Mann, ruthlessly overpowered his brother, having him mutilated and blinded. Guðrøðr thereafter regained the kingship, and the realm was divided between the Crovan dynasty and the Meic Somairle, in a partitioning that stemmed from Somairle's strike against Guðrøðr in 1156.
  In an entry dated 1172, the chronicle states that Mann was invaded by a certain Ragnall mac Echmarcacha, a man who slaughtered a force of Manx coast-watchers before being slain himself in a later engagement on the island. Although the chronicle claims that Ragnall was of "royal stock", his identity is otherwise uncertain. One possibility is that this man's final adventure was somehow related to the dramatic fall of Norse-Gaelic Dublin in the preceding years. He could have possessed a connection with the former rulers of the town, as a distant relative of Echmarcach mac Ragnaill, King of Dublin and the Isles. Alternately, Ragnall's name could indicate that he was a member of the Meic Torcaill, a family that possessed royal power in Dublin as late as the English conquest, and evidently possessed some lands afterwards.
  Another possibility is that Ragnall's attack was somehow related to events in northern Ireland, where the Meic Lochlainn lost hold of the Cenél nEógan kingship to Áed Méith Ua Néill. In fact, it is possible that the invader himself was a member of the Uí Catháin, a branch of the Uí Néill who were opponents of John de Courcy, Guðrøðr's English ally and son-in-law. Although the chronicle specifically dates Ragnall's invasion to 1172, the chronological placement of the passage positions it between events dating to 1176 and 1183. This could indicate that the incursion took place in the immediate aftermath of John's conquest of Ulaid in 1177. Therefore, it is conceivable that Ragnall embarked upon his invasion whilst Guðrøðr was absent from Mann assisting John in Ireland.
caption: St Oran's Chapel, the oldest intact building on Iona,[126] dates to the mid twelfth century,[127] and may have been built by either the Meic Somairle[128] or the Crovan dynasty.[129] Guðrøðr himself was laid to rest on the island.[130]
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