page_title: Ketill Flatnose
section_title: Dál Riata
hierarchical_section_title: Ketill Flatnose / Interpretations / Dál Riata
caption_attribution_description: English: Viking-age Headstone Headstone at St Blane's Chapel.
context_page_description: Ketill Björnsson, nicknamed Flatnose, was a Norse King of the Isles of the 9th century.
context_section_description: Dál Riata was a Gaelic kingdom in the Argyll and Bute region of Scotland. Jennings and Kruse argue that Ketill Bjornsson could have taken "control of Dál Riata with its islands". They note the correspondence between the Gaelic name Dál Riata and the fact that when Auðr, settled in the Breiðafjörður region  of western Iceland it was in a region called Dalir or Dalaland (modern Dalasýsla).  Furthermore, "in the Breiðafjörður area there is an indisputably nostalgic Celtic precedent for quite a few names." Examples include  islands called Pjattland (Pictland) and Írland (Ireland) and the nearby  Patreksfjörður and Trostansfjörður named in honour of two Celtic saints.
  They also quote the Irish Martyrology of Tallaght, which refers to a "[Feast of] Bláán, bishop of Kingarth in Gall-Ghàidheil". This indicates that St Blane of Kingarth in Bute was closely connected to the Gallgáedil. The text is dated not later than the early tenth century and it seems that this part of Dál Riata was by then part of  Gallgáedil-held territory. Fraser (2009) has suggested that Little Dunagoil near Kingarth could have been the Dalriadan Cenél Comgaill capital prior to the Norse incursions.
caption: Viking-age headstone, St Blane's Chapel, near Kingarth
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