Mormaer of Caithness
Videos
The Mormaer of Caithness was a vassal title mostly held by members of the Norwegian nobility based in Orkney from the Viking Age until 1350. The mormaerdom was held as fief of Scotland and the title w
Magnus Barefoot's army in Ireland, as imagined in Gustav Storm's 1899 edition of Heimskringla
The ruins of Braal Castle, the caput of the Caithness mormaers which was given over to the Scottish crown in 1375 by Alexander of Ard.
Ruins of the Castle of Old Wick, a twelfth- or thirteenth-century fortress, which may have been a winter residence of Harald Maddadsson.
Earl of Orkney
Videos
Earl of Orkney, historically Jarl of Orkney, is a title of nobility encompassing the archipelagoes of Orkney and Shetland, which comprise the Northern Isles of Scotland. Originally founded by Norse in
Mormaer of Caithness
…nobility based in Orkney from the Viking Age until 1350. The mormaerdom was held as fief of Scotland and the title was frequently held by the Norse Earls of Orkney, who were thus a vassal of both the King of Norway and the King of Scots. There is no other example in the history of either Norway or of Scotland in…
Ruins on the Brough of Birsay, once the seat of the early Norse jarls of Orkney. The Brough is now a tidal islet but in earlier times it was connected to Mainland Orkney by an isthmus.