The district of Ross is often mentioned in the Norse Sagas along
with the other parts of the country then governed by Maormors or
Jarls, and Skene in his earlier work says that it was only on the
downfall of those of Moray that the chiefs of Ross appear prominent
in historical records, the Maormors of Moray being in such close
proximity to them and so great in power and influence that the
less powerful Maormor of Ross held only a comparatively subordinate
position, and his name was in consequence seldom or never associated
with any of the great events of that early period in Highland
history. It was only after the disappearance of those district
potentates that the chiefs appear under the appellation of
Comites or Earls. That most, if not all, of these earls were the
descendants of the ancient maormors there can be little doubt,
and the natural presumption in this instance is strengthened by
the fact that all the old authorities concur in asserting that
the Gaelic name of the original Earls of Ross was O'Beolan - a
corruption of Gilleoin, or Gillean, na h`Airde - or the descendants
of Beolan. "And we actually find," says the same authority, "from
the oldest Norse Saga connected with Scotland that a powerful chief
in the North of Scotland named O'Beolan, married the daughter of
Ganga Rolfe, or Rollo, the celebrated pirate who became afterwards
the celebrated Earl of Normandy." If this view is well-founded
the ancestor of the Earls of Ross was chief in Kintail as early as
the beginning of the tenth century. We have seen that the first
Earl of Ross recorded in history was Malcolm Mac Heth, to whom
a precept is found, directed by Malcolm IV., requesting him to
protect the monks of Dunfermline and defend them in their lawful
privileges and possessions. The document is not dated, but judging
from the names of the witnesses attesting it, the precept must have
been issued before 1162. It will be remembered that Mac Heth was