The dubh gall in southern Scotland: the politics of Northumbria, Dublin, and the Community of St Cuthbert in the Viking Age, c. 870-950 CE

Abstract

The wide-ranging interests of the Scandinavians who controlled Dublin from 851, known as the dubh gall (and later the Uí Ímair), have been noted by some scholars. At various times they are thought to have controlled or exercised some form of over-lordship over the Kingdom of Northumbria, northern Wales, and southern Scotland, including the Kingdom of Strathclyde. Although evidence from present-day northern England and southern Scotland are often assessed separately, it is important to note that much of southern Scotland was part of the Anglo-Saxon Kingdom of Northumbria up to c. 950 CE. It is argued in this paper that the political interests of Scandinavian kings of York (members of the dubh gall/Uí Ímair), often aligned with the Archbishop of York and the Community of St Cuthbert, explains much of the evidence of Scandinavian burial and settlement.