Scottish History: Forces, Facts, and Highlanders of the North

Scotland is an old country with an ancient history. There is no doubt about that. Many traditions, words, symbols, and other cultural aspects we see as normal today, originate from Scotland.

Scotland's documented history started with the Roman Empire's entryway in the first century, when the province of Britannia broadened as far north as the Antonine Wall. Caledonia, to the north, was home to the Picti, whose uprisings drove Rome's armies back to Hadrian's Wall. As Rome withdrew from Britain, the Scoti, a group of Gaelic pirates, started colonizing Western Scotland and Wales. Ancient Scotland saw the Neolithic Age around 4000 BC, the Bronze Age around 2000 BC, and the Iron Age around 700 BC before the arrival of the Romans.

With all of this history and more in the past few centuries, when things got really interesting, let’s take a look at some of the best-known, most important factors of Scotland’s history, and what we can learn from them.