There was an ancient Celtic earldom of Ross in the north-east of Scotland, in what is now the county of Ross and Cromarty, between the Cromarty and Dornoch Firths, north of Inverness. The clan was sometimes referred to as Clan Anrias or Gille Andras/Gillanders, the old Celtic Earls of Ross, who were said to have descended from Gillianrias, the son of the hereditary abbot at the monastery of Applecross. They probably came of the same stock as the O'Beolain hereditary abbotts of Drumcliff in Ireland, who descended from Cairbre, son of Niall of the Nine Hostages. Applecross abbey was founded in 673 by Saint Maelrubha, abbott of Bangor, who descended from Eoghan, another son of King Niall. As St. Maelrubha was himself connected on his mother's side with St. Comgall, founder and first abbott of `Bangor of the Irish Picts in the Ards of Ulster', the right to the abbeylands may at first have passed in the Pictish mode, and the O'Beollans perhaps have acquired the abbacy by a female descent in the transitional ninth century.
Magnus Barefoot, the King of Norway, sailed across the North Sea in 1098 to re-establish his country’s power in Celtic lands. He made an agreement with Edgar, King of Scots, that he would settle for all the islands of the west coast he could reach whilst his boat’s rudder was in a fixed position. He then proceeded to have his boat towed around by his men and claimed not only the isles but the peninsula that is Kintyre. Fifty years later King Somerled took Kintyre and the islands back. When King Somerled was killed fighting Malcolm IV the Maiden in 1164, he was succeeded by his son Dougall. From Dougall would come the Clan MacDougall and from Dougall’s son Ranald came a grandson Donald, progenitor of the mighty Clan MacDonald.
In the abbreviated edition of the CHRONICLE OF HOLYROOD under the date 1157 one finds "Malcolm Machet (sic) cum rege Scottorum pacificus est" or (translated) Malcolm Macbeth is at peace with the King of Scotland. CHRONICLE OF MELROSE beneath the date 1134." This interpretation is highly suspect unless it refers to one of the MacBeths (Clan MacLeod) other than the king, either a Sheriff or a Thane of Falkland, named in charters to the Culdees. It is quite possible that Malcolm's surname of Macbeth was adopted during the time frame prior to his appointment as Earl of Ross. Since Clan Fraser was like a next door neighbour of Clan Ross, it might be wise to give equal weight to the Fraser Chronicles which "also support the reading of Milcolm Mackbeth and likewise refer to Donald son of Melcolm Mckbeth". The Crown and Somerled seem to have agreed that the MacHeth line be transferred to the remotest corner of Scotland - Strathnaver.
The earliest man we known of to have the comital title to Ross, was the rebel Máel Coluim mac Áeda. Outside of Co. Fermanagh, in Scotland the title is an ancient one, having been first created in 1157 for Malcolm MacHeth to whom Malcolm IV the Maiden gave Ross, with the title of Earl of Ross, but the inhabitants rose against him and drove him out of the district. Although Holmcultrum did not remain a purely Scottish institution: it had friends and benefactors on both sides of the border and King Henry II of England extended his protection to it after he re-established his authority over this area in 1157. By 1147 the Savigniac Order was experiencing financial and administrative problems, prompting the head of the Savigniacs, Abbot Serlo of Savigny, to approach the General Chapter of Cîteaux in 1147, seeking the absorption of his congregation. His request was accepted and this brought fourteen houses in England and Wales within the Cistercian family. Henry ruled over the province in the north of England called Cumberland, which had been ceded to Scotland by King Stephen (1135-54). Holmcultram was intended as an affiliation of King David’s own foundation of Melrose, and the first monks were thus brought from this abbey. Locally, Melrose in the Tweed Valley, it was the Angles who came with their families to found the kingdom of Bernicia, the heartland of Northumbria to be. Deira (the Brythonic kingdom of Ebrauc) was a kingdom in England during the 6th century AD. It later merged with the kingdom of Bernicia (Brythonic, Brynaich) to the north to form the kingdom of Northumbria. West Riding usually refers to the West Riding of Yorkshire in England, though Lindsey also possesses a West Riding. It is one of the three ancient divisions of the county of YorkshireWyntoun mentions an Earl "Gillandrys", a name which is derived from the common ancestor of the Mackenzies and Rosses, "Gilleoin-Ard-Rois," as one of the six Celtic earls who besieged King Malcolm at Perth in 1160. In a list of hereditary precedence of Scottish Clans and Names deriving from Baronage, Ross is first in precedence, dating from 1160," having been raised from one of the seven paired districts once ruled by Mormaers and Righs. For 1160, [Maol Ruanaidh, tigherna Fer Manach]: The Airghialla federation included Uí Cremthainn, Uí Méith, Uí Tuirtre, Uí Meic Uais, Uí Fiachra Ard Sratha, Mughdorna, Uí Meic Cáirthinn, Airthir, Fernmhaighe, and Fir Lí, among other tribal groupings and territories. Other places where Arghialla groups have been noted included areas within the modern counties of Tyrone, Cavan, Meath, Westmeath, Louth, and Derry. Their territory, depending on timeframe, included much of what includes the modern counties of Monaghan, Armagh and Fermanagh. The original church of St. Molua standing on a small island in the Shannon as about the close of this century the ancient bishoprick of Roscrea was permanently united to the see and cathedral of Killaloe by Donald, the King of Limerick.
The diocese of Ossory, "Ireland's oldest bishopric", was probably co-terminus with the founder of King's County (Offaly) Saint Ciarán of Clonmacnoise and the ancient kingdom of Ossory. About the yeare 571 the people of Osraighe were united with their neighbors to the northwest, the Eile, in a defeat at the battle of Tola, a battle which was apparently won by a chief of the Ulaid (northeast Ireland). Tola is the name of a plain situated between Cluain Fearta Molua and Saighir. Before the arrival of the Anglo-Normans the winds of change had been blowing from Continental Europe. The coming of the Cistercians to Jerpoint probably around 1160 and to Kilkenny had already signaled the passing of the old Celtic order, and soon the Canons Regular of St. Augustine were firmly installed in Saighir Kieran and Fertagh and had set up new foundations in Aghmacart, St. John's, Kilkenny, Kells and Inistioge; their sisters were in the nunnery of Kilculiheen. The transfer of the Cathedral from Aghaboe to Kilkenny in the last decade of the twelfth century, the foundation of a cathedral chapter and the establishment of a parish system through the system of tithes introduced by the Anglo-Normans radically transformed the ecclesiastical organization of the diocese. More than half of the new parishes were in the hands of the religious, while the rest were run by the secular clergy - mostly the dean and chapter of St. Canice's. In the 13th century the Dominicans came to Aghaboe, the Black Abbey in Kilkenny and Rosbercon.
The clan of the Cenél Baodan, or MacLeans (Mac Giolla Eoin) descend from Baodan, great-grandson of Loarn, king of Dal Riada. The clan was originally settled in Morvern, where they gave their name to a district, and one of their early ancestors was abbot of the nearby Isle of Lismore. In later times they migrated up the Great Glen into Moray, and later still, about 1160, they were one of several clans transferred to the Scone area (Tayside in Perthshire) by Malcolm IV the Maiden. The reason for this outstanding record rests with the actions of King Malcolm IV the Maiden, who elevated the land of Ross from a "paired district" to its new status, and to Malcolm Macbeth, who was made the first Earl of that territory by the same king. A few counties such as Sutherland, Ross and Fyfe are true Counties in the sense that the territories were once held by Counts or Earls. Thane of Ross is mentioned in the Norse legends. Finleigh (Findlaec), an early Mormaer of Ross, was assassinated in 1020 by Maelbride, the Mormaer of Moray, and the men of Ross revenged the murder by locking Maelbride with fifty of his men inside his own castle and setting it on fire twelve years later. For the County of Ross, Malcolm Macbeth, the first Earl of Ross. Other territories were shires (Thaneages or Sheriffdoms, i.e. governed by Thanes or Sheriffs).
Malcolm MacHeth (1134) was taken prisoner and confined in the castle of Roxburgh, where also his son Donald was put in 1156, he was, nevertheless, released by King Malcolm, who even ceded to him some possessions in Cumberland, evidently fearing his father-in-law, the powerful Somerled. We find Malcolm MacHeth at the court of King Inge in Norway, who seems to have confirmed him in his royal rights, as it is said in the Icelandic annals that in 1160 he got the title of King of the Sudreys. During his stay with King Inge he took a conspicuous part in the battle upon the ice near Oslo, on the 4th of February 1164, where Inge was killed. The division which is said to have been made in 1156 between Gødred and Somerled, and to have caused the ruin of the kingdom, ought perhaps more properly to be said to have been effected between Godred and Dubhgal or Dimgald, the son of Somerled. Somerled was killed in the battle at Renfrew (1164), and was a significant battle between the Scottish Crown and Somerled the same yeare Olaf II of Norway, Dublin, and Waterford is canonized as Saint Olaf.
The chief of the Clan Ross does not appear in history till the reign of Malcolm IV the Maiden., but when he does so, he is termed by Wyntoun the chronicler, one of the seven "Mayster men" or magnates of Scotland, and so must already have occupied a position of high power and consequence. According to the Register of Dunfermline, a certain Malcolm was at that time Earl of Ross, and he was probably the same individual with the Gille Anrias Ergemauche whom Wyntoun describes as chief spokesman, along with Ferquhard, Earl of Strathearn, among the seven magnates who conspired to overthrow the King, and place his brother William on the throne. The cause of the conspiracy was the fact that King Malcolm, as holder of an English fief, the Earldom of Huntingdon, had followed Henry II. of England in his expedition against Toulouse. Malcolm was holding his court at Perth in 1160, soon after his return from France, when the conspirators suddenly surrounded the city. The young King, however, proved more vigorous than they expected. Instead of waiting to be attacked, he took the offensive, drove them from the field, and pursued them into Galloway. There, at the third attempt, he overthrew his enemies. Fergus, lord of Galloway, became a monk at Holyrood and the Earl of Ross appears to have been forfeited. Two years later, at any rate, according to Documents, etc., illustrating the History of Scotland, IV. 5, p. 20, the earldom of Ross was granted as part of the dowry of the Princess Ada on her marriage with Florence, Count of Holland. From that time the Earls of Ross appear as strong supporters of the Scottish King, and, holding Mull, Skye, Iona and the Nordreys, Kintaill between Lewis and Skye or northern islands, in opposition to a Norwegian nominee, seem to have done their best to complete the overthrow of the Norse power in the Isles. The distant cultures point to Skye's involvement in this heroic age of the Gaelic speaking people. The Gaelic people from Ireland, probably a mixture of P and Q Celts (a division of Insular Celtic), began to raid the Western coasts of Britain. The Irish invaders, the original Scotic tribes, were successful throughout the Western borders of Scotland, or Alba coming from the north of Iberia, mainly Gallaecia; the paradox of tribal warfare between the Gaelic speaking Q Celts and the Picts in Skye. Two great tribal nations of Gaels emerged in the light of the historical period: The North Gaels and the South Gaels , Eugenians, or Eoghanach. The "race of the priest," otherwise Gilleanrias, appear indeed to have been among the great leaders of that time who, under Alexander II. and Alexander III., finally defeated and overthrew the Norse dominion which had been closing its hold upon the north and west of Scotland for 500 years.
Ecclesia Sancti Andreae Date: 1130: from Saint Androis, the name given, possibly by King Kenneth McAlpine (c. AD 850), to the church founded here by St Regulus who traditionally brought relics of the apostle to Scotland in the 4th century. Ptolemy of Egypt, in the second century, referred to the people of Easter Ross as the Decantoe, "the noble folk".
Malcolm IV the Maiden, the last Scottish king with a Celtic name, had scarcely taken his grandfather's seate when the Gaels rose under the pretender Donald MacHeth, one of Lulach's ubiquitous descendants. His father-in-law Somerled, Under-King of Argyll and Lord of the Hebrides, raided Clydeside as far as Glasgow before Walter FitzAllan drove him back to his ships. The revolt in Moray lasted longer, and it was three years before MacHeth and his father were locked in Roxborough dungeon." Somerled, Lord of the Isles, did not live long after making peace with the same king, Malcolm IV the Maiden (who reigned 1153 - 1165). Somerled was killed in 1164, four years after making peace in 1160. The first recorded chief appeared about the time of Malcolm the Fourth's reign and evidence of his power and influence in the land is amply reflected by the fact that he was one of the 'seven Maister Men' of Scotland. By the time of completion of the REGISTER OF DUNFERMLINE, the ruling Earl of Ross was known as Malcolm. Malcolm married a sister of Somerled, Lord of Argyll, and had issue, with others, a son Donald, who was imprisoned with his father, and a daughter Gormlath, or Hvarfleda, married to Harald, Earl of Caithness.
In 1179, King William and his brother Earl David took an army north to Ross, likely to deal with some threat from Domnall, or from Domnall and supporters. Two years later, Domnall was reported in Scotland with a large army. The focus of royal activity at this time was in Galloway, and it was not until Lochlann (or Roland) son of Uchtred was brought to an agreement, through diplomacy rather than military success, by King William, that affairs in Moray and Ross could be settled.