Dál Riata

Dál Riata was a Gaelic kingdom that stretched across the North Channel, covering what is now Argyll in western Scotland and part of County Antrim in Northern Ireland. Its four main kindreds, the Cenél nGabráin, Cenél nÓengusa, Cenél Loairn and Cenél Comgaill, each had their own chief, and the hillfort of Dunadd served as the royal centre. The kingdom is traditionally said to have been founded by Fergus Mór in the fifth century, and it reached its height under Áedán mac Gabráin, who ruled from about 574 to 608. Áedán sent naval expeditions to Orkney and the Isle of Man and campaigned against the Britons of Strathclyde and the Angles of Bernicia, until Æthelfrith of Bernicia checked him at the Battle of Degsastan in 603. Defeats in Ireland and Scotland during the reign of Domnall Brecc ended the kingdom's golden age, and Dál Riata became a client of Northumbria and later of the Pictish king Óengus I. Viking raids from 795 weakened it further, and in the ninth century the Dál Riatan and Pictish crowns may have merged. Kenneth MacAlpin, said to have been king of Dál Riata before becoming king of the Picts in 843, is traditionally seen as the link between Dál Riata and the Kingdom of Alba. Iona, within the kingdom, was a major centre of Celtic Christianity and insular art.