THE VIKINGS IN SCOTLAND

The Vikings burst suddenly into Scottish history in the last decade of the 8th century, with a series of attacks on the coast. These were part of many similar coastal raids in Britain, Ireland and Francia, from a people from Scandinavia whose homelands were so remote the rest of the world knew little and cared less.

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Why, after centuries of obscurity, did the Norse take to the seas from the fjords they called ‘viks’ and which, some say, is the origin of the name which struck terror into the hearts of the world – the Vikings?
Because they could. The secret of success lay in the ships they made, which could now leave the shelter of land and ride the open sea. The reason they wanted to was simpler still – the lands they farmed were poor and the ones they raided soft, green and rich. In the end, though it took them 90 years to think about it, some of them decided not to go home at all.
The earliest recorded clash in Scotland was in 795AD, when the Vikings raided the monastery of Colmcille on Iona. Perhaps the last true Viking was Svein Asleifarson, who had a band of 80 followers on Gairsay in the Orkneys and kept to the old ways – raiding in the spring after sowing and returning in midsummer for the harvest. Then it was off again on an autumn raid, which lasted until midwinter.
After 30 years of this, during which he raided Wales, Ireland and even sacked a monastery in the Scilly Isles, he was eventually killed on a raid to Dublin. The year was 1171AD.
By the 13th century, however, the Vikings had stopped raiding and Norse dominion was fading. The Scots had recovered Ross, Caithness and Sutherland and were looking at grabbing the Isle of Man and the Western Isles so, in1263AD, King Haakon IV of Norway decided to bring his Great Fleet down and persuade the Scots to stop looking.

This is where the Battle of Largs story begins……………………………………..