in the room over St Catherine's Chapel of Carlisle Cathedral copied from 'Stephens'; it says: "TOLFINAE UARAITA ThAESI RUNR A ThISI STAIN" which is: "Tolfinae wrote these runes on this stone."

DOLFIN OF CARLISLE was a landlord of extensive lands in the 'land of Carlisle' (Cumberland) and in the north and east of Westmoreland, which he owned hisself by demesne of his father. Latest about the time, however, when Dolfin's father had to flee into his final exile in Scotland, Dolfin instead, got given the governship of Cumberland by his father's first cousin, Malcolm III., King of Scotland to rule the land on the king's behalf, which he conquered about ten years before.

In 1061 Malcolm III., King of Scotland invaded Northumbria, which was the first of five such raids, to regain the lost territory of Cumbria (Cumberland and Westmoreland) south of the Solway taken by the Northumbrian Earl Siward a few years before. During following years of this conquest the native lords of Cumberland and Westmorland owed allegiances to the Scottish crown, which would explain, why Cumbria wasn't included in King William's Domesday Survey of 1086.
NOTE:   At the time of Domesday Book in 1086, parts of the county Westmoreland were considered either to form part of Yorkshire or to be within the separate Kingdom of Strathclyde.

In 1092 though King William II (Rufus) brought on army north and captured Carlisle. Dolfin, the local lord, was expelled and retired to his lands in the borderlands. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle reported: "In this year King William with a great army went north to Carlisle, restored the town, built the castle (photo); and drove out Dolfin, who ruled the land there before. And he garrisoned the castle with his vassals; and thereafter came south hither and sent hither a great multitude of (churlish) folk with women and cattle, there to dwell and till the land." 

While the local people started to suffer, increasingly taxed and pillaged and probably forced to build the new castle at Carlisle (photo) many local lords were simply dispossessed. However because William Rufus was forced to deal with trouble on the Welsh border without pacifying the 'Land of Carlisle', some local lords tried to reach additionally an accommodation with the Normans.

So did seemingly Dolfin. According to the Metcalfe Society he was able to make a successful stand at Dolphenby in the Eden Valley, to consolidate his territories and to form familiar alliances with the first Norman strongman of Cumbria, Ivo de Taillebois by giving his youngest sister Gunilda to his great-grandson Orm, son of Ketel.
Note:   It cannot be clarified in this place if it corresponds with factual events, but there are hints that Dolphenby was rather associated with Dolfin's brother-in-law Dolfin fitzAylward, a pre-Conquest owner of lands thereabouts, who was married with Dolfin of Carlisle's sister Maud (Mathilda). But it could have well been of course that Dolfin of Carlisle fled to his sister and brother-in-law them days.

Not much is known about his family, but it is said that he was married and had issue:
(1)   Edward fitzDolfin
NOTE:   In c. 1130 "Edward son of Dolfin" witnessed a gift by Uctred son of Uctred, Elviva his wife and Adam their son and heir to the Canons of Carlisle. (Source: Cumbria Archive Centre, Carlisle) Besides "Edwardo filio Dolfini" witnessed an undated charter, under which "Alanus Walthevi filius" donated salmon at Cockermouth to St Bees. 
(2)   Gospatric fitzDolfin of Roxburgshire; he is presumed to be the father of
(2.1)   Walter de Roxburgshire, who got granted the knight's fee by king David I. (fl. 1139-1153)
(2.2)   Ansketil de Riddale, Habton and Brawby. Ansketil's youngest son, Patrick succeeded to the Yorkshire and also the Roxburgshire lands in the end being the progenitor of the Riddels in Scotland.

NOTE:   A charter dated 1114/1115 concerning Scone Abbey was witnessed by 'Gospatricus Dolfini". He was the first known sheriff of Roxburgh mentioned as "Cospatricio vicecomite" ("Gospatric the Sheriff") in the foundation charter of Selkirk Abbey issued by Earl David I. (king of Scotland between 1124-1154) at some time between 1113 and 1124. Besides he witnessed as "Gospatricus Vicecomes" a grant by David, now king of Scotland, to Durham Cathedral Priory, sometime between April 1126 and March 1127 and a grant of land in Roxburgh to the church of St John of the castle of Roxburgh sometime between 1124 and 1133.
(3)   Ketil (Chetil) fitzDolfin of Leitholm and Strickland; Ketel was enfeoffed by William de Lancaster of Kendal (known as William "DE TAILLEBOIS" when younger) the English Manor of Great Strickland (near Appleby), together with other lands in Westmorland before 1170. Besides he received from the Dunbars, who were its overlords, the Berwickshire Manor of Letham or Leteham (now Leitholm), in the parish of Eccles. Owing to his tenure of Letham, Ketel son of Dolfin frequently appears as a witness to the 12th century charters of his powerful relatives, the Earls of Dunbar. An agreement between Earl Waldeve and the monks of Coldingham, concerning land in Raynington, had as witnesses, among others, "Ketel de Letham and Ketel filio suo", from which it is clear that there were two successive Ketels of Leitholm, father and son. The wife of one of these Ketels (probably the younger) was called Ada. Ketel son of Dolfin was also the father of Uctred de Strickland, upon whom his father seems to have settled the family's lands in the Barony of Kendal, including the Manor of Great Strickland.
NOTE:   Ketel's father, Dolfin, is very often identified with the 'Dolfin son of Ailward' mentioned above, who was married to Dolfin of Carlisle's sister, Maud, but their children are enumerated in Canon Wilson's Register of St. Bees, and Ketil's name is missing. Therefore he was perhaps the son of Dolfin of Carlisle, rather than of DOLFIN OF STAINDROP.
(3.1)  Ketil de (Letham) Leitholm being the father of Christiana de Letham; "Walter de Strickland is recorded in the Westmorland Final Concords of 1208 as Walter de "Stircland" and Christiana his wife who made an agreement with "Sigrid, daughter of Uctred" regarding a carucate of land in "Stircland," whereby Walter and Christiana acknowledged the property to be the right of Sigrid [wife of Maldred], to hold of them and of their heirs of Christiana by the free service of two shilling render yearly. In return, Sigrid granted to them all her land "from Aspelgile to Groshousic and from Groshouis to Bounwath." [Feet of Fines, Westmorland, 10 John] Besides there is mentioned William de Strickland in the Westmorland Assize Rolls, where he refers to his great-grandmother as Christiana de Leteham, "Cristiana de Leteham proavia predicti Willelmi de Stirklaund."
(3.2)  Uctred de Stirkeland (Strickland) being the father of Sigrid de Strickland; in 1200 Sigrid, daughter of Uctred, brought suit against Walter son of Durand (of Great Asby) for dower in property at "Werfton," co. Westmorland that had once belonged to her husband Maldred, now deceased (Feet of Fines, Westmorland, 2 John means 1202). It is not clear though, who Sigrid's husband was exactly.
(4)   Hamon de Lowther; an early reference to the Lowther family was to Dolfin. A document at Durham dated 21 November 1202, in the reign of King John, concerning the rent of land at Lowther. It conveniently identifies the land in question by saying that it lay next to the land of Hamon son of Dolfin.

Dolfin's life after 1092 seems to remain rather mysterious. But it is said that Gospatric's "... three sons, ..., became border chieftains, dangerous to the English king." They controlled much of Lothian, and all of "The Borders", Berwick, Peebles, Selkirk, and Roxburgh, plus their great holdings in Northumberland and Cumberland.

Dolfin resided at his property Dolphiston Castle in the parish of Jedburgh (Scottish Borders), which stood once on the site, what is now Dolphinston Farm. Dolfin acquired it during the reign of Alexander I. (fl. 1107-1124), about the beginning of the twelfth century. "The manor bearing this name lies to the south of the Lake of Scraesburgh, with the river Jed for its western boundary.
It is said * Et de Scarisburgh capellam etiam, quod fundata est in saltu memoris super acquam Jed. that part of the present farm onstead occupies the site of the old strength.
(Dolphiston Tower on the site of Dolphiston Castle)                      It was of old the property of one of the sons of Gospatrick, who came to Scotland in 1072. The first Gospatrick had three sons, Gospatrick, Dolphin, and Waldef. All the three appear in the inquisition of David as to the churches of Teviotdale, in 1116." But nothing of the old building remained. The castle got destroyed in 1361, or at some time later. However part of the present farm (of Dolphinston) occcupies the site of the old strength. The walls of Dolphinston Castle were from 8ft to 10ft thick; little more than in 1837. It is said that the name 'Randolph de Ainslie' was inscribed on the principal gateway. It is known that the manor of Dolphinston belonged to the Clan Ainslies, mentioned in 1221. There are also other places of the same appellation in Roxburghshire and in West Lothian. In Douglas MS. Chronicle of England, Thomas Dolfine is recorded among the "grete lordes of Scoteland" who were defeated at Halidon Hill in 1338.

It's not exactly known, when Dolfin died. But it is striking though that his younger brother, Gospatric, Earl of Lothian was consistently referred to as 'brother of Dolfin' in Scottish charters he attested between 1120 and 1134. Only in charters between 1134 and 1138 he is referred to as 'Earl Gospatric' without mentioning his eldest brother, which might give the hint that Dolfin had died latest by then.