attacks on Christian settlements in the islands of the west were not new. In the 6th century Tiree was raided by Pictish forces, Tory Island was attacked in the early 7th century by a "marine fleet" and Donnán of Eigg and 52 companions were murdered by Picts on Eigg in 617.) Various named Viking leaders, who were probably based in Scotland, appear in the Irish annals: Soxulfr in 837, Turges in 845 and Hákon in 847. The king of Fortriu Eógan mac Óengusa and the king of Dál Riata Áed mac Boanta were among the dead in a major defeat to the Vikings in 839. Another early reference to the Norse presence in the Irish records is that there was a king of "Viking Scotland" whose heir, Thórir, brought an army to Ireland in 848. Caittil Find was a reported leader of the Gallgáedil fighting in Ireland in 857. The Frankish Annales Bertiniani may record the conquest of the Inner Hebrides by Vikings in 847. Amlaíb Conung, who died in 874, is described as the "son of the king of Lochlainn" in the Fragmentary Annals of Ireland also suggesting an early date for an organised kingdom of Viking Scotland. In the same source Amlaíb is also recorded as having gone to the aid of his father Gofraidh who was under assault from Vikings in Lochlainn, circa 872. Gofraidh died in 873 and may have been succeeded by his son Ímar who also died that year. A lament for Áed mac Cináeda, a Pictish king who died in 878, suggests Kintyre may have been lost to his kingdom at that time. The Isle of Man may also have been taken by the Norse in 877 and was certainly held by them by 900. Subdivisions Norðreyjar The Northern Isles were "Pictish in culture and speech" prior to the Norse incursions, and although it is recorded that Orkney was "destroyed" by King Bridei in 682 it is not likely that the Pictish kings exerted a significant degree of ongoing control over island affairs. According to the Orkneyinga Saga, about 872 Harald Fairhair became King of a united Norway and many of his opponents fled to the islands of Scotland. Harald pursued his enemies and incorporated the Northern Isles into his kingdom in 875 and then, perhaps a little over a decade later, the Hebrides as well. The following year the local Viking chieftains