Hugo probably received this grant after William the Lion's first
conquest of Sutherland and Caithness in 1196, shortly before the time
when, as we shall see, Harald Ungi obtained in right of his mother a
grant of half Orkney from the Norse king, and another from the king of
Scotland of half Caithness, and probably a confirmation of his title
to the Moddan lands in Strathnaver and in Halkirk and Latheron, to
which he was heir in right of his father and grandmother Audhild of
the Moddan line. But this half of Caithness would be conferred on
Harald Ungi subject to the prior grant of Sudrland to Hugo Freskyn.
For Harold Maddadson must, in the opinion of so eminent an authority
as Lord Hailes, have been forfeited in 1196, if not earlier, for
both he and his son Thorfinn were then in open rebellion against the
Scottish Crown.[34]
Further deprivations of lands, it is conjectured, must have attended
Harold Maddadson's later rebellions, and the events which must have
led to those deprivations may now be recounted, though it is very
difficult to reconcile Scottish and Norse records during the period.
In 1179 King William the Lion had marched an army into Ross, and
subdued it to his sway; and, ere he left it, caused two castles of
Eddirdovir on the site of Redcastle in the Black Isle on the Beauly
Firth, and of Dunskaith[35] on the northern Suter of Cromarty, which
is full of Norse remains, to be built, to enable him to hold his
conquests.
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