Richard Oram suggests the strong likelihood that his main wife was a daughter of Donnchad II, Mormaer or Earl of Fife and the most important native lord in Scotland.
In 1174, King William le Lion of Scotland invaded England in an attempt to regain Northumberland.
Benedict of Peterborough reported that: When they [the brothers] heard that their lord the king of Scotland was taken, they immediately returned with their Galwegians to their own lands, and at once expelled from Galloway all the bailiffs and guards whom the king of Scotland had set over them; and all the English and French whom they could seize they slew; and all the defences and castles which the king of Scotland had established in their land they besieged, captured and destroyed, and slew all whom they took within them[2]Despite the implications that both brothers were involved, it is clear that only Gilla Brigte was, and that Uchtred opposed him.
For Benedict goes on to tell us that, in relation to the same year, Gille Brigte's son Máel Coluim was besieging Uchtred on an island in Galloway.
Gille Brigte's bad fortune was compounded later in the year, when Henry and William signed the Treaty of Falaise.
William cultivated the loyalty of Uchtred's son Lochlann (Roland), using him as a card in the game for control over the Galwegian lordship.