part of Scotland is likely to have been temporary and on other occasions, such as during his uncle Ljot's earldom, Scottish forces had pushed north into Caithness.Thomson (2008) p. 60 The Hebrides Sigurd the Stout also took control of the Hebrides,Ó Corráin (1998) p. 20 and placed a jarl called Gilli in charge. Njal's Saga records an expedition that took place c. 980 in which Kari, Sigurd's bodyguard, plundered the Hebrides, Kintyre and "Bretland" (probably Strathclyde). On another occasion Kari sailed through The Minch in order to collect tribute from Gilli, whose base may have been either Colonsay or Coll. The Annals of Ulster record a raid by "the Danes" on Iona on Christmas Night in which the abbot and fifteen of the elders of the monastery were slaughtered and this may have been connected with the successful conquering of the Isle of Man by Sigurd and Gilli between 985 and 989.Annals of Ulster. "U986.3". CELT. Retrieved 21 January 2014. Njal's Saga records a victory for Sigurd over Gofraid mac Arailt, King of the Isles with the former returning to Orkney with the spoils. The contemporary Annals of Ulster record a similar event in 987 although with the reverse outcome. Here it is claimed that 1,000 Norsemen were killed, among them the Danes who had plundered Iona. Two years later Njal's Saga reports a second campaign in the southern Hebrides, Anglesey, Kintyre, Wales and a more decisive victory in Man. Irish sources report only the death of King Gofraid in Dál Riata, an event that Thomson (2008) ascribes to Earl Gilli's Gall-Ghàidheil forces. The Eyrbyggja saga records the payment of silver tribute from Man to Sigurd, and, although this is a rather unreliable source, there is corroboration of such an event occurring in 989 in a Welsh source, with payment being made of a penny each from the local population to "the black host of the Vikings". It has been suggested that the much later use of ounceland and pennyland assessments in the Gàidhealtachd may date from the time of Earl Sigurd and his sons. By 1004 the western isles' independence from Orkney had been re-asserted under Ragnal mac Gofraid, who died in that year. It is possible the rules overlapped, with Gilli's zone of influence to the north and Ragnal's to the south. On Ragnal's death Sigurd re-asserted control, which he held until his own death a decade later