Postponement of Festival marking Battle of Largs between the Scots and Norse

The Largs Viking Festival has fallen victim to the coronavirus pandemic this year. The event was due to run from 29th Aug 2020 – 6th Sep 2020 and would have been the 40th Anniversary of the festival. Nevertheless organisers are already making plans to "direct its efforts to planning and delivering the best possible Largs Viking Festival in 2021". This is scheduled for 28th August to 5th September 2021, with the spectacular Viking Festival of Fire taking place on Saturday 4th September 2021. The full programme for that event will be on the Largs Viking Festival website in the summer of next year. 

The Festival marks the 1263 Battle of Largs, the last mainland battle between the Scots and Norse. It was during the many years of conflict between Scotland and Norway that the Battle of Largs took place in the reign of King Alexander III (4 September 1241 – 19 March 1286). Largs (Scottish Gaelic: An Leargaidh Ghallda) is a town on the Firth of Clyde in North Ayrshire (Scottish Gaelic: Siorrachd Àir a Tuath) near where the battle took place on 2nd October 1263.  The battle itself was an indecisive one and was fought during the Norwegian expedition of 1263. This was part of King Hakon Hakonarson of Norway’s campaign to reassert Norwegian sovereignty over the western seaboard of Scotland. It was fought in a period when Alexander II and his son Alexander III were trying to incorporate that region into Scotland.

For centuries the Norse - Gael kingdoms of the Hebrides and Isle of Man came under the influence of Norway, as did the Northern Isles of Shetland and Orkney. There had been Viking interventions into Scotland and the surrounding islands since the 8th century AD. The Northern Isles of Shetland and Orkney were known to the Norse as Norðreyjar. The Southern Isles forming the Kingdom of Mann and the Isles (sometimes known as The Kingdom of the Isles) consisting of the Hebrides, the islands in the Firth of Clyde and the Isle of Man were known as Suðreyjar.

Both King Alexander II of Scotland in the 1240’s and then later his son King Alexander III tried to purchase, then when this failed, attempted military force to gain the Isles. King Hákon Hákonarson of Norway (1204 to 1263) sought to defend the lands against the expanding power of Scotland. It  was the Treaty of Perth agreed on 2nd July 1266 between Norway and Scotland that sought to end these conflicts. Under the treaty Scotland was given sovereignty of the Hebrides and Isle of Man upon agreement of payment to Norway. At the same time Scotland recognised Norwegian sovereignty over Shetland and Orkney. Those Northern Isles did not become part of the Kingdom of Scotland until 1471. Norwegian law was not abolished in Shetland until 1611 and the Norse based language of Norn continued in common use for over two centuries after that.

Image above: Detail from William Hole's painting The Battle of Largs circa 1899.

Image below: Map of Kingdom of Mann and the Isles at end of eleventh century.