The High Middle Ages of Scotland encompass Scotland in the era between the death of Domnall II in 900 AD and the death of King Alexander III in 1286, which was an indirect cause of the Wars of Scottish Independence.

At the close of the ninth century, various competing kingdoms occupied the territory of modern Scotland. Scandinavian influence was dominant in the northern and western islands, Brythonic culture in the southwest, the Anglo-Saxon or English Kingdom of Northumbria in the southeast and the Pictish and Gaelic Kingdom of Alba in the east, north of the River Forth. By the tenth and eleventh centuries, northern Great Britain was increasingly dominated by Gaelic culture, and by the Gaelic regal lordship of Alba, known in Latin as either Albania or Scotia, and in English as "Scotland". From its base in the east, this kingdom acquired control of the lands lying to the south and ultimately the west and much of the north. It had a flourishing culture, comprising part of the larger Gaelic-speaking world and an economy dominated by agriculture and trade.

After the twelfth-century reign of King David I, the Scottish monarchs are better described as Scoto-Norman than Gaelic, preferring French culture to native Scottish culture. A consequence was the spread of French institutions and social values including Canon law. The first towns, called burghs, appeared in the same era, and as they spread, so did the Middle English language. These developments were offset by the acquisition of the Norse-Gaelic west and the Gaelicisation of many of the noble families of French and Anglo-French origin. National cohesion was fostered with the creation of various unique religious and cultural practices. By the end of the period, Scotland experienced a "Gaelic revival", which created an integrated Scottish national identity. By 1286, these economic, institutional, cultural, religious and legal developments had brought Scotland closer to its neighbours in England and the Continent, although outsiders continued to view Scotland as a provincial, even savage place. By this date, the Kingdom of Scotland had political boundaries that closely resembled those of the modern nation.

Historiography Scotland in the High Middle Ages is a relatively well-studied topic and Scottish medievalists have produced a wide variety of publications. Some, such as David Dumville, Thomas Owen Clancy and Dauvit Broun, are primarily interested in the native cultures of the country, and often have linguistic training in the Celtic languages."Professor David Dumville" . University of Aberdeen. Retrieved 11 February 2012."Prof Thomas Clancy". University of Glasgow. Retrieved 11 February 2012. Normanists, such as G.W.S. Barrow, are concerned with the Norman and Scoto-Norman cultures introduced to Scotland after the eleventh century. For much of the twentieth century, historians tended to stress the cultural change that took place in Scotland during this time."The Paradox of Medieval Scotland: 1093-1286" . University of Glasgow and partners. Retrieved 11 February 2012. However, scholars such as Cynthia Neville and Richard Oram, while not ignoring cultural changes, argue that continuity with the Gaelic past was just as, if not more, important.e.g. Oram, The Lordship of Galloway (2000); Boardman & Ross (eds.) The Exercise of Power in Medieval Scotland (2003); Neville, Native Lordship (2005).

Since the publication of Scandinavian Scotland by Barbara E. Crawford in 1987, there has been a growing volume of work dedicated to the understanding of Norse influence in this period. However, from 849 on, when Columba's relics were removed from Iona in the face of Viking incursions, written evidence from local sources in the areas under Scandinavian influence all but vanishes for three hundred years.Woolf (2006b) p. 94. The sources for information about the Hebrides and indeed much of northern Scotland from the eighth to the eleventh century, are thus almost exclusively Irish, English or Norse. The main Norse texts were written in the early thirteenth century and should be treated with care. The English and Irish sources are more contemporary, but according to historian Alex Woolf, may have "led to a southern bias in the story", especially as much of the Hebridean archipelago became Norse-speaking during this period.Woolf (2007) p. 275.

There are various traditional clan histories dating from the nineteenth century such as the "monumental" The Clan DonaldMarsden (2008) p. 33 referring to MacDonald A. and MacDonald A. (1896-1904) The Clan Donald. Inverness. and a significant corpus of material from the Gaelic oral tradition that relates to this period, although their value is questionable.Graham-Campbell and Batey (1998) pp. 37–46.

Origins of the Kingdom of Alba

At the close of the ninth century, various polities occupied Scotland. The Pictish and Gaelic Kingdom of Alba had just been united in the east; the Scandinavian-influenced Kingdom of the Isles emerged in the west. Ragnall ua Ímair was a key figure at this time although the extent to which he ruled territory in western and northern Scotland including the Hebrides and Northern Isles is unknown as contemporary sources are silent on this matter.Woolf (2007) p. 148. Dumbarton, the capital of the Kingdom of Strathclyde had been sacked by the Uí Ímair in 870.Woolf (2007) p. 109. This was clearly a major assault, which may have brought the whole of mainland Scotland under temporary Uí Imair control.Woolf (2007) p. 115. The south-east had been absorbed by the English Kingdom of Bernicia/Northumbria in the seventh century. Galloway in the southwest was a Lordship with some regality. In a Galwegian charter dated to the reign of Fergus, the Galwegian ruler styled himself rex Galwitensium, King of Galloway.Oram (2000) p. 62. In the northeast the ruler of Moray was called not only "king" in both Scandinavian and Irish sources, but before Máel Snechtai, "King of Alba".For Findláech, ri Alban, Annals of Ulster, s.a. 1020; Anderson (1922) vol. i, p. 551. For Máel Coluim, Annals of Tigernach, s.a. 1029; Anderson (1922) vol. i, p. 571. The Annals of Tigernach though styles Findláech merely Mormaer.

However, when Domnall mac Causantín died at Dunnottar in 900, he was the first man to be recorded as rí AlbanAnderson (1922) vol. i, p. 395. and his kingdom was the nucleus that would expand as Viking and other influences waned. In the tenth century, the Alban elite had begun to develop a conquest myth to explain their increasing Gaelicisation at the expense of Pictish culture. Known as MacAlpin's Treason, it describes how Cináed mac Ailpín is supposed to have annihilated the Picts in one fell takeover. However, modern historians are now beginning to reject this conceptualization of Scottish origins.e.g. Broun (1997); Broun (2001) p. 359; Woolf (2001) p. 604; Forsyth (2005) pp. 28–31. Compare older accounts, such as Smyth (1984) pp. 175–189. No contemporary sources mention this conquest. Moreover, the Gaelicisation of Pictland was a long process predating Cináed, and is evidenced by Gaelic-speaking Pictish rulers,See Clancy (2004) pp. 125–149. Pictish royal patronage of Gaelic poets,Clancy (1998) pp. 15–16, 115. and Gaelic inscriptionsWoolf (2007) pp. 62–63. and placenames.Nicolaisen (1976/2001) pp. 165–191; Taylor (1996), pp. 93–103. The change of identity can perhaps be explained by the death of the Pictish language, but also important may be Causantín II's alleged Scoticisation of the "Pictish" ChurchChronicle of the Kings of Alba; Anderson (1922) vol. i, p. 445. and the trauma caused by Viking invasions, most strenuously felt in the Pictish kingdom's heartland of Fortriu.Woolf (2006) pp. 182–201.

Scandinavian-influenced territories

Kingdom of the Isles

The Kingdom of the Isles comprised the Hebrides, the islands of the Firth of Clyde and the Isle of Man from the 9th to the 13th centuries AD. The islands were known to the Norse as the Suðreyjar, or "Southern Isles" as distinct from the Norðreyjar or "Northern Isles" of Orkney and Shetland, which were held by the Earls of Orkney as vassals of the Norwegian crown throughout the High Middle Ages.

After Ragnall ua Ímair, Amlaíb Cuarán, who fought at the Battle of Brunanburh in 937 and who also became King of Northumbria, is the next King of the Isles on record.Gregory (1881) pp. 4–6.Woolf (2007) pp. 45–46. In the succeeding years Norse sources also list various rulers such as Gilli, Sigurd the Stout, Håkon EirikssonWoolf (2007) p. 246. and Thorfinn Sigurdsson as rulers over the Hebrides as vassals of the Kings of Norway or Denmark.

Godred Crovan became the ruler of Dublin and Mann from 1079Gregory (1881) p. 5.The Chronicle of Man and the Sudreys (1874) p. 51. and from the early years of the twelfth century the Crovan dynasty asserted themselves and ruled as "Kings of Mann and the Isles" for the next half-century. The kingdom was then sundered due to the actions of Somerled whose sons inherited the southern Hebrides while the Manx rulers held on to the "north isles" for another century.Sellar (2000) p. 193.

The North The Scandinavian influence in Scotland was probably at its height in the mid eleventh centuryCrawford (1987) p. 221. during the time of Thorfinn Sigurdsson, who attempted to create a single political and ecclesiastical domain stretching from Shetland to Man.Crawford (1987) p. 79. The permanent Scandinavian holdings in Scotland at that time must therefore have been at least a quarter of the land area of modern Scotland.

By the end of the eleventh century, the Norwegian crown had come to accept that Caithness was held by the Earls of Orkney as a fiefdom from the Kings of Scotland although its Norse character was retained throughout the thirteenth century.Imsen (2007) pp. 11–12. Raghnall mac Gofraidh was granted Caithness after assisting the Scots king in a conflict with Harald Maddadson, an earl of Orkney in the early thirteenth century.

In the ninth century, Orcadian control stretched into Moray, which was a semi-independent kingdom for much of this early period.Mackie (1964) p. 38. The Moray rulers Macbeth (1040–1057) and his successor Lulach (1057–1058) became rulers of the entire Scottish kingdom for a time.Mackie (1964) p. 43. However, Moray was subjugated by the Scottish kings after 1130, when the native ruler, Óengus of Moray was killed leading a rebellion. Another revolt in 1187 was equally unsuccessful.Mackie (1964) p. 52.

South west Scotland

By the mid-tenth century Amlaíb Cuarán controlled The RhinnsWoolf (2007) p. 254. and the region gets the modern name of Galloway from the mixture of Viking and Gaelic Irish settlement that produced the Gall-Gaidel.Logan (1992) p. 49. Magnus Barelegs is said to have "subdued the people of Galloway" in the eleventh century and Whithorn seems to have been a centre of Hiberno-Norse artisans who traded around the Irish Sea by the end of the first millennium.Graham-Campbell and Batey (1998) p. 203. However, the place name, written and archaeological evidence of extensive Norse (as opposed to Norse-Gael) settlement in the area is not convincing.Graham-Campbell and Batey (1998) pp. 106–108.

The ounceland system seems to have become widespread down the west coast including much of Argyll, and most of the southwest apart from a region near the inner Solway Firth. In Dumfries and Galloway the place name evidence is complex and of mixed Gaelic, Norse and Danish influence, the last most likely stemming from contact with the extensive Danish holdings in northern England.Crawford (1987) pp. 87, 93, 98. Although the Scots obtained greater control after the death of Gilla Brigte and the accession of Lochlann in 1185, Galloway was not fully absorbed by Scotland until 1235, after the rebellion of the Galwegians was crushed.Oram (2000) pp. 141–146.

Strathclyde