Kermac Macmaghan

[3] The independence of the Islesmen, and the lurking threat of their nominal overlord, the formidable Hákon Hákonarson, King of Norway, constituted a constant source of concern for the Scottish Crown.

[4] Specifically, the thirteenth-century Hákonar saga Hákonarsonar indicates that Kermac aided William I, Earl of Ross during this action, and states that the two led a force of Scots who burnt down a town and churches on Skye.

In July 1263, this fleet disembarked from Norway, and by mid August, Hákon reaffirmed his overlordship in Shetland and Orkney, forced the submission of Caithness, and arrived in the Hebrides.

After redistributing portions of the region to certain faithful supporters, Hákon led his forces from the Hebrides and reached the Northern Isles, where he fell ill and died that December.

[19] Hákon had failed to break Scottish power; and the following year, Alexander III seized the initiative, and oversaw a series of invasions into the Isles and northern Scotland.

[23] In fact, the aforesaid Alexander Comyn and Alan are known to have extracted twenty head of cattle from William's earldom and granted this sum to Kermac as compensation for services rendered.

Specifically, with the conclusion of the Treaty of Perth in July, Hákon's son and successor, Magnús Hákonarson, King of Norway, formally resigned all rights to Mann and the islands on the western coast of Scotland.

[27] According to the mediaeval chronicler Matthew Paris, Hugh de Châtillon, Count of Saint-Pol commissioned the construction of a great ship at Inverness in preparation for the Seventh Crusade.

Map of northern Britain
Locations relating to Kermac's life and times.
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Seal of Alexander III depicting the armament of a contemporary mounted knight .
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Nineteenth-century stained glass window commemorating the Battle of Largs . [ 9 ]
A painting of a man fending off a stag which is in the midst of attacking another man
Alexander III of Scotland Rescued from the Fury of a Stag by the Intrepidity of Colin Fitzgerald , an eighteenth-century depiction of an unhistorical Mackenzie ancestor purported to have lived during Kermac's floruit. [ 13 ] [ note 1 ]
Photograph of Eilean Donan Castle
According to tradition, Eilean Donan Castle was constructed by a chieftain from Kintail , a man who could be identical to Kermac. [ 27 ] The present structure dates to the early twentieth century, [ 28 ] and serves as an example of modern romanticism rather than a mediaeval fortress. [ 29 ]