throughout his career, alan appears to have moved seamlessly between the native gaelic environment of galloway, and the frankish cultural environment of the english and scottish royal courts. in this respect, alan followed in his father's footsteps, who first appears in records under forms of the native gaelic name "lochlainn", before adopting forms of the continental "roland". in fact, alan's own name may also be evidence of frankish influence on his family. surviving charters concerning alan's lordship reveal that his dependants were almost exclusively drawn from the frankish milieu. few of these sources concern galloway specifically, however, and not one concerns the ancestral gallovidian patrimony. comparatively more charter evidence survives documenting the holdings of his cousin, donnchad, who ruled nearby carrick. in contrast to the "acta" concerning alan, these sources reveal that many of donnchad's dependants were drawn from the native aristocracy, which could be evidence that alan's lordship in galloway followed a similar course.