Áed mac Boanta is believed to have been a king of Dál Riata.

The only reference to Áed in the Irish annals

Irish annals

A number of Irish annals were compiled up to and shortly after the end of Gaelic Ireland in the 17th century.Annals were originally a means by which monks determined the yearly chronology of feast days...

 is found in the Annals of Ulster

Annals of Ulster

The Annals of Ulster are annals of medieval Ireland. The entries span the years between AD 431 to AD 1540. The entries up to AD 1489 were compiled in the late 15th century by the scribe Ruaidhrí Ó Luinín, under his patron Cathal Óg Mac Maghnusa on the island of Belle Isle on Lough Erne in the...

, where it is recorded that "Eóganán mac Óengusa

Uen of the Picts

Uuen [Wen] or Eogán in Gaelic was king of the Picts, or of Fortriu , in what is now Scotland....

, Bran mac Óengusa, Áed mac Boanta, and others almost innumerable" in a battle fought by the men of Fortriu

Fortriu

Fortriu or the Kingdom of Fortriu is the name given by historians for an ancient Pictish kingdom, and often used synonymously with Pictland in general...

 against Vikings in 839.

The Duan Albanach

Duan Albanach

The Duan Albanach is a Middle Gaelic poem found with the Lebor Bretnach, a Gaelic version of the Historia Brittonum of Nennius, with extensive additional material ....

 lists an "Áed An" who ruled for four years over Dál Riata

Dál Riata

Dál Riata was a Gaelic overkingdom on the western coast of Scotland with some territory on the northeast coast of Ireland...

 and the Synchronisms of Flann Mainistrech

Flann Mainistrech

Flann Mainistrech was an Irish poet and historian.Flann was the son Echthigern mac Óengusso, who had been lector at the monastery of Monasterboice , in Irish Mainistir Buite, whence Flann's byname, meaning "of Monasterboice"...

 place him between Caustantín mac Fergusa

Caustantín of the Picts

Causantín or Constantín mac Fergusa was king of the Picts , in modern Scotland, from 789 until 820. He was until the Victorian era sometimes counted as Constantine I of Scotland; the title is now generally given to Causantín mac Cináeda...

 and Eóganán mac Óengusa, Caustantín's nephew. It is doubtful whether Caustantín and Eóganán ruled over Dál Riata, but Áed is thought to have done so.

Áed may have been preceded as king by Domnall mac Caustantín

Domnall mac Caustantín

Domnall mac Caustantín is thought to have been king of Dál Riata in the early ninth century.Domnall's existence is uncertain, and is based on attempts to reconcile eleventh century works such as the poem Duan Albanach and the Synchronisms of Flann Mainistrech with the evidence of the Irish...

. It is not known what kings followed him, if any, before the region fell under the dominance of Norse-Gaels

Norse-Gaels

The Norse–Gaels were a people who dominated much of the Irish Sea region, including the Isle of Man, and western Scotland for a part of the Middle Ages; they were of Gaelic and Scandinavian origin and as a whole exhibited a great deal of Gaelic and Norse cultural syncretism...

 such as the Uí Ímair

Uí Ímair

The Uí Ímair , or Dynasty of Ivar, were an enormous royal and imperial Norse dynasty who ruled Northern England, the Irish Sea region and Kingdom of Dublin, and the western coast of Scotland, including the Hebrides, from the mid 9th century, losing control of the first in the mid 10th, but the rest...

in the latter part of the ninth century.