Donnchadh's career is not well documented in the surviving sources.

Charters pro
vide a little information about some of his activities, but overall their useful
ness is limited; this is because no charter-collections (called cartularies) fro
m the Gaelic south-west have survived the Middle Ages, and the only surviving ch
arters relevant to Donnchadh's career come from the heavily Normanised English-s
peaking area to the east.[2] Principally, the relevant charters record his acts
of patronage towards religious houses, but incidental details mentioned in the b
ody of these texts and the witness lists subscribed to them are useful for other
matters.[3]
Some English government records describe his activities in relation to Ireland,
and occasional chronicle entries from England and the English-speaking regions o
f what became south-eastern Scotland record other important details. Aside from
the Chronicle of Melrose, the most significant of these sources are the works of
Roger of Hoveden, and the material preserved in the writings of John of Fordun
and Walter Bower.[4]
Roger of Hoveden wrote two important works: the Gesta Henrici II ("Deeds of Henr
y II", alternatively titled Gesta Henrici et Ricardi, "Deeds of Henry and Richar
d") and the Chronica, the latter a re-worked and supplemented version of the for
mer.[5] These works are the most important and valuable sources for Scottish his
tory in the late 12th century.[6] The Gesta Henrici II covers the period from 11
69 to April 1192, and the Chronica covers events until 1201.[7] Roger of Hoveden
is particularly important in relation to what is now south-western Scotland, th
e land of the Gall-Gaidhil. He served as an emissary in the region in 1174 on be
half of the English monarch, and thus his account of, for example, the approach
of Donnchadh's father Gille-Brighde towards the English king comes from a witnes
s.[8] Historians rely on Roger's writings for a number of important details abou
t Donnchadh's life: that Gille-Brighde handed Donnchadh over as a hostage to Hen
ry II under the care of Hugh de Morwic, Sheriff of Cumberland; that Donnchcadh m
arried the daughter of Alan fitz Walter under protest from the Scottish king; an
d that Donnchadh fought a battle in Ireland in 1197 assisting John de Courcy, Pr
ince of Ulster.[9]
Another important chronicle source is the material preserved in John of Fordun's
Chronica gentis Scottorum ("Chronicle of the Scottish people") and Walter Bower
's Scotichronicon. John of Fordun's work, which survives on its own, was incorpo
rated in the following century into the work of Bower. Fordun's Chronica was wri
tten and compiled between 1384 and August 1387.[10] Despite the apparently late
date, Scottish textual historian Dauvit Broun has shown that Fordun's work in fa
ct consists of two earlier pieces, Gesta Annalia I and Gesta Annalia II, the for
mer written before April 1285 and covering the period from King Mel Coluim mac Do
nnchada (Malcolm III, died 1093) to 2 February 1285.[11] Gesta Annalia I appears
to have been based on an even earlier text, about the descendants of Saint Marg
aret of Scotland, produced at Dunfermline Abbey.[12] Thus material from these wo
rks concerning the late 12th and early 13th century Gall-Gaidhil may represent,
despite the apparent late date, reliable contemporary or near-contemporary accou
nts.[13]