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Sailing from Norway in the end of July 1263, King Hakon found a
fair wind, and crossed in two days to Shetland, where he lay for a
fortnight assembling his fleet in Bressay Sound off Lerwick. While he
was here Jon Langlifson, son of Langlif, the youngest daughter of Earl
Harold Maddadson, brought the disappointing news that King John of the
Sudreys had gone over to the side of the Scottish king, but the news
was disbelieved, and Hakon, at the time, had every reason to think
that, while he was sure of the support of the Orkneymen and their
earl, the western islanders would support him to a man. Quitting
Shetland, therefore, he sailed to Orkney, and his fleet lay first at
Ellidarvik or Ellwick in The String off the south of Shapinsay, a few
miles from Kirkwall. While it was here, King Hakon conceived the idea
of sending a squadron of his ships to raid the shores of the Moray
Firth, and there is little doubt that this project was aimed at the
lands of the families of De Moravia in Sutherland and Moray. The
question, however, was submitted to a council of the freemen of the
fleet, who proved to be unwilling that any of them should leave their
king and decided that the fleet should not be divided, but that the
original object of the expedition, the reconquest of the Western Isles
and West of Scotland, should be adhered to instead.
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