Mac Scelling

Mac Scelling
Mac Scelling's name as it appears on folio 504r of Dublin Royal Irish Academy C iii 3 (the Annals of the Four Masters).[1]

Mac Scelling (fl. 1154 – 1173/1174), also known as Mac Scilling, was a prominent twelfth-century military commander engaged in conflicts throughout Ireland. He is first recorded in 1154 commanding the maritime forces of Muirchertach Mac Lochlainn, king of the Cenél nEógain, in a bloody encounter against Toirrdelbach Ua Conchobair, king of Connacht. Muirchertach's naval forces were drawn from the western peripheries of Scotland and the Isles. He next appears on record in 1173/1174, supporting the cause of Ruaidrí Ua Conchobair, king of Connacht against the English colonisation of Mide. An early modern Scottish source claims that a man of the same name was a bastard son of Somairle mac Gilla Brigte, king of the Isles. If Mac Scelling was indeed related to Somairle, this relationship could cast light on the latter's conflict with the subsequent king, Guðrøðr Óláfsson, a man who appears to have opposed Muirchertach at some point in his career. Although not termed so in contemporary sources, Mac Scelling may be regarded as an early archetype of later gallowglasses, heavily-armed Scottish mercenaries recruited by Irish rulers in centuries that followed.