This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. (Learn how and when to remove these messages) This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Diocese of the Isles" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (January 2017) (Learn how and when to remove this message) This article includes a list of references, related reading, or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks inline citations. Please help improve this article by introducing more precise citations. (April 2021) (Learn how and when to remove this message) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

54°13′34″N 4°41′53″W / 54.22620°N 4.6981°W / 54.22620; -4.6981

The Diocese of the Isles, also known as the Diocese of Suðreyar, or the Diocese of Sodor, was one of the dioceses of medieval Norway. After the mid-13th-century Treaty of Perth, the diocese was accounted as one of the 13 dioceses of Scotland. The original seat of the bishopric appears to have been at Peel, on St Patrick's Isle, where indeed it continued to be under English overlordship; the Bishopric of the Isles as it was after the split was relocated to the north, firstly to Snizort and then Iona.

The diocese in its full form included the Outer Hebrides, most of the Inner Hebrides (including Iona, Skye, Raasay, Canna, Eigg, Coll, Tiree, Mull, Colonsay, Islay, Jura, Gigha – but not Lismore, Kerrera, Seil or Luing, all under the Bishop of Argyll), the Isle of Bute and the Isle of Arran, as well as the Isle of Man (Mann). The diocese may have originally contained Galloway, a suggestion thought to explain the possible attacks of Wimund on Bishop Gilla Aldan of Whithorn.

From the 11th century until the creation of the Archdiocese of Niðarós, Mann and the Isles appear to have been under the jurisdiction of the Archbishop of York. Thereafter, it was formally under Niðarós (modern Trondheim). The diocese was severed after the English acquisition of Mann in the 14th century.

In 1472, however, the Norwegian territories of Orkney and Shetland became Scottish, as part of the marriage settlement of King James III of Scotland, following which the Bishopric of St. Andrews was elevated to an archdiocese, and the Isles (but not Mann) came under her jurisdiction.

The Bishopric's links with Rome ceased to exist after the Scottish Reformation, but continued, apart from temporary abolition between 1638 and 1661, under the Episcopal faction within the Church of Scotland until the Revolution of 1688. Episcopacy and Anglicanism in the established and Presbyterian-controlled Church of Scotland was permanently abolished in 1689 but it continued in the Non-juring Scottish Episcopal Church until 1702 with the death of Bishop Archibald Graham. The diocese then came under the care of the Bishop of Ross or Caithness or Moray variously. A new united Scottish Episcopal Diocese of Argyll and The Isles was established in 1847 with Bishop Alexander Ewing as the first Bishop living at Lochgilphead. In the Restoration of the Scottish Catholic hierarchy in 1878, a Roman Catholic Diocese of Argyll and the Isles was similarly reestablished and continues to exist. Those who belong to the Catholic Church in the Isle of Man, on the other hand, are now under the jurisdiction of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Liverpool.

Source: Argyll Bute Inverness Ross. Man not included.

1. Barra (Barra)
2. Barvas (Lewis)
3. Benbecula (Benbecula)
4. Bracadale (Skye)
5. Canna (Canna)
6. Coll (Coll)
7. Colonsay (Colonsay)
8. Duirinish (Skye)
9. Eye or Stornoway (Lewis)
10. Gigha & Cara (Gigha)
11. Harris (Harris)
12. Howmore (South Uist)
13. Inchkenneth (Mull)
14. Iona (Iona)
15. Jura or Killearndale (Jura)
16. Kilarrow (Islay)
17. Kilbride (Arran)
18. Kilchoman (Islay)
19. Kilcolmkill (Mull)
20. Kildalton (Islay)
21. Kildonan (Eigg)
22. Kilfinichen (Mull)
23. Kilmaluoc (Raasay)
24. Kilmeny (Islay)
25. Kilmore (Mull)
26. Kilmory (Arran)
27. Kilmuir or Kilmorie (North Uist)
28. Kilmuir (Skye)
29. Kilninian (Mull)
30. Kilpeter (South Uist)
31. Kilvickeon (Mull)
32. Kingarth (Bute)
33. Kirkapoll (Tiree)
34. Lochs (Lewis)
35. Minginish (Skye)
36. Ness (Lewis)
37. Rodel (Harris)
38. Rothesay (Bute)
39. Sand (North Uist)
40. Sleat (Skye)
41. Snizort (Skye)
42. Soroby (Tiree)
43. Strath (Skye)
44. Torosay or Killean (Mull)
45. Trumpan (Skye)
46. Uig (Lewis)
47. Uig (Skye)

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Diocese of Argyll and the Isles". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Ancient Diocese of Sodor and Man". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
• Cowan, Ian Borthwick; Easson, David Edward (1976). Medieval Religious Houses, Scotland: with an appendix on the houses in the Isle of Man. London: Longman. ISBN 978-0-582-12069-3.
• Dowden, John (1912), Thomson, J. Maitland (ed.), The bishops of Scotland: being notes on the lives of all the bishops, under each of the sees, prior to the reformation, James Maclehose and sons
• Thomas, Sarah E. (2010). "The Diocese of Sodor between Niðaróss and Avignon — Rome, 1266–1472". Scottish Society for Northern Studies. 41: 22–40.
• Watt, D. E. R. (2003). Fasti Ecclesiae Scoticanae medii aevi ad annum 1638. Edinburgh: Scottish Record Society. ISBN 978-0-902054-19-6.
• Woolf, Alex (2003), "The Diocese of Sudreyar", in Imsen, Steiner (ed.), Ecclesia Nidrosiensis 1153–1537: Søkelys på Nidaroskirkens og Nidarosprovinsens historie (in English and Norwegian), Trondheim: Tapir Academic Press, pp. 171–81, ISBN 978-8251918732

• Bishop of the Isles, list of bishops of the Isles
• Diocese of Sodor and Man