Dal Riata was a Gaelic kingdom which existed in Scotland from the 5th century to 843 AD. For centuries before the end of Roman rule in Britain, there had been communities of Gaels living of Britannia's western seaboard, but they had been small things. During the 5th century, they began to grow and expand as a result of invigoration and changes in their homeland. Among these pockets of Gaelic expansion, unquestionably the greatest was the kingdom of Dal Riata in the north-west of Britain. The legend of a grand invasion may be a fanciful mythologizing of much slower population shifts, but by 481 the center of power in the kingdom moved from Ireland to Britain. During the late 6th century AD, Dal Riata's power and influence grew, launching naval expeditions to Orkney and the Isle of Man and assaulting the Brythonic kingdom of Alt Clut and the Anglian kingdom of Bernicia. In 603, King Aethelfrith of Bernicia checked Dal Riata's growth at the Battle of Degsastan, and serious defeats in Ireland and Scotland during the reign of Domnall Brecc ended Dal Riata's "golden age", and it became a client kingdom of Northumbria for a time. In 741, King Oengus I brought Dal Riata under Pictish overlordship. From 795 onward, there were sporadic Viking raids on Dal Riata, which had usurped the throne of Fortriu. Kenneth MacAlpin became King of Dal Riata, and he united Dal Riata with Pictland in 843 and created the Kingdom of Scotland.
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