| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| ~8000 BC | End of the last Ice Age |
| ~4000 BC | Sea level rising and growth developing -Migrants from the Danube Valley (Beaker People) crossed the land bridge and spread out through Britain, Ireland, and Scotland. |
| ~3000 BC | Copper mines developed near the Clyde and free-standing stone monuments erected, such as Callanish on the island of Lewis and the Ring of Brodgar on the Orkneys. |
| 3200 - 2200 BC | The neolithic stone village of Skara Brae on the Orkneys was occupied. |
| abt. 2000 BC | Peoples speaking a language related to Celtic settle the northern portion of Britain. They call themselves the Cruithni, which the Romans later represented as Caledoni. They left behind them the round stone towers called brochs and the underground houses called weems. |
| abt 700 BC | Further migrations from the alpine area brought two waves of Celts to the British Isles. The first wave spoke Q-Celtic and sometimes called themselves Goidels or Gaels. They came to dominate in Ireland. The second wave spoke P-Celtic and called themselves the Pretani, which the Romans heard as Britanni. They eventually dominated all of Britain south of the Forth-Clyde line. |
| abt. 325 BC | Pytheas of Massilia circumnavigated the island of Britain, or Pretannia. He apparently visited the islands of Man and Lewis, and the Orkneys before travelling on to Ultima Thule. |
| 43 AD | The invasion of southern Britain by the growing Roman Empire did not initially affect northern Britain (Scotland) or Ireland |
|
80 AD |
The Romans under governor Cn. Julius Agricola invade southern and eastern Caledonia with camps as far as the Spey river in Morayshire. In 83AD he defeated the combined Pictish forces at Mons Graupius, probably in Perthshire. The Roman historian Tacitus records that before this battle the Pictish commander, Calgacus, said of the Romans "They make a wasteland and call it peace." |
| 120 AD | Emperor Hadrian (117-138) ordered a wall built along the line from Carlisle to Newcastle to hold the Caledoni out. |
| 140 AD | The emperor Antoninus Pius (138-161) ordered the border of the empire advanced to the line from the Clyde to the Forth, the narrowest part of Britain, where a new wall was constructed. However this wall was abandoned later in the century. |
| 208 AD | Septimus Severus invades eastern Caledonia. A line of camps reaches the passes leading onto the Moray Firth. He assumed the title Britannicus to celebrate this conquest. However, aside from briefly reoccupying the wall from the Clyde to the Forth, no new territory was incorporated into the empire. |
| 211 AD | Septimus Severus dies at York while preparing for a new attack on northern Britain. |
| 297 AD | Because of their habit of wearing war-paint the Romans started to call the Caledoni the "Painted ones" or in Latin Picti. |
| 360 AD | Irish and Pictish raiding parties begin attacking the northern and western frontiers of Roman Britain. By 367 the military defence of Britain had collapsed. The response was to send a large force under Count Theodosius which restored order. Naval forces were used against the home bases of the invaders. The British tribes just beyond the Roman frontier, such as the Votadini centered on the Grampian hills south of Edinburgh, were given payments and privileges to encourage them to defend the frontier. |
| 383 AD | Taking advantage of the relative security which Britain enjoyed Magnus Maximus is declared Emperor and leads much of the military forces of Britain into the mainland of Gaul to defend it against German invasion. He is defeated by Theodosius, now Emperor, but many of the troops never return to Britain. |
| 397 AD | St.Ninian founds the monastery of Whithorn or Candida Casa in Galloway, converting many pagan Celts and Picts to Christianity. |
| 407 AD | Roman Britain, tired of paying taxes to support a military which has abandoned them, drives out the Imperial administration and crowns a series of rival emperors. |
| 410 AD | The Emperor Honorius, directly threatened by Vandal and Visigothic attacks which led to the sack of Rome itself, washes his hands of Britain. This cuts off Britain's supply of coin and interrupts regular communications. Control passed to a coalition of the fading city administrations and the wealthy landowners. |
|
~430 AD |
Sub-Roman Britain is under the control of a man with the British title Vortigern. He attempts to secure his realm by settling mercenaries on the frontier. One such group is of Saxons under the leadership of a man nicknamed Hengist ("Stallion"). He also re-settles a group of Votadini under their leader Cunedda from the Grampian hills south of Edinburgh to Northern Wales to defend against Irish attacks. |
| ~500 AD | Fergus, king of Dalriata in northern Ireland (Ulaid), takes over Kintyre in Argyll, possibly in alliance with the British kingdom of Strathclyde, thus founding the first Scottish kingdom in northern Britain. |
| 563 AD | The Irishman St. Columba established a monastery on the island of Iona from which he set out on missions that converted both Picts and Scots to Christianity. In one famous incident he impressed the Pictish king Bridei of Fortriu at his capital at Inverness. |
| 574-608 AD | Reign of Áedán mac Gabráin, greatest king of Dalriata. |
| 603 AD | Battle of Degsastan. English forces, under Aethelfrith of Northumbria, deal a crushing defeat to a British force from the kingdom of Strathclyde, and a Scottish force under Áedán mac Gabráin, and take over south-eastern Scotland. The English come to be referred to as Sassenachs. |
| 843 AD | The Scottish throne descended through the male line while the Pictish throne descended through the female line. Kenneth MacAlpin united the two kingdoms because he was heir to the Scottish throne through his father and to the Pictish throne through his mother. |
| 900's AD | Norwegians settled in the Orkneys, the Isles and Sutherland |
| 1016 AD | England came under Danish rule (Canute) |
| 1040 AD | MacBeth succeeded Duncan (1034-1040) as king of Scotland in part based upon the claim of his wife as daughter of the preceduing King of the Pictish royal family. Duncan's sons, Malcolm Canmore and Donald Bane ("the Fair") fled to England. |
| 1057 AD | Malcom III Canmore returned to defeat MacBeth and assume the throne of Scotland. |
| 1066 AD | England conquered by Normans under William I. The Saxon prince Edgar was driven out of England and took sanctuary with Malcolm, who married Margaret, last Saxon princess of England. Malcolm acknowledged the authority of William but then made several invasions of England on behalf of his Queen. |
| 1093 AD | Malcolm III killed during a raid on England. The Scottish throne remained in his family until 1290. |
| 1100's AD | A period of good and bad kings and of increased Normanization and political and economic interference from the Normans in England. Some of the nobles had joint fealty to both kings, Alexander II did seize the Isles and the north from the Vikings |
| 1290 AD | There was no male heir and Edward I of England, when asked, named Balliol as king |
| 1300's AD | Revolts by Wallace in 1297 and by Bruce in 1306 resulted in major defeats for Edward I and Edward II and Bruce became king as Robert I.-David II was made prisoner by the English -a Stewart became regent and on the death of the king became king in 1371 as Robert II. Wars with France, a peasant revolt, the Black Death and the disastrous civil Wars of the Roses left little time for English interference with Scotland, |
| 1500's AD | The discovery of America and sea routes to Asia also changed attitudes. After the death of James V in a fruitless attack on England Mary Queen of Scots became queen but was in problems with the nobility mainly on religious grounds. She abdicated in 1567 and her son James became king of Scotland. |
| 1603 AD | James became king also of England and Ireland on the death of Elizabeth |
| 1600's AD | The reformation movement in the 15th and 16th centuries in Europe extended to England and Scotland and combined with disputes over trade and territories caused almost continuous war. in England religion was a major factor in a revolution that deposed the Stuart kings in 1645, reinstated them in 1660 and again deposed them in 1688 and established William and Mary of Orange as king and queen |
| 1700's AD | Scotland was made a part of Great Britain by an act in 1707 and no longer had a separate identity. Attempts to return were made by James II in 1715 (defeated at Boyne in Ireland), and his son "Bonnie Prince Charlie" (defeated at Culloden in Scotland in 1745). Repressive measures were strict on the Scots for years, denying them the use of their style of dress and music. The Scots became a major factor in the wars that established the British Empire and in the banking and industrial life of the country during the Industrial Revolution. |
| 1800's AD | Massive changes in agriculture and industry were accompanied by a sharply rising population but a reduction in the required labour force. At the same time, huge areas of new lands in the Americas and Australia became available. The surplus population of Europe moved to settle these lands. Scots also faced the use of new equipment on the farms and the conversion of marginal land to sheep meant many thousands went into the new industries or emigrated. 40 million moved from Europe (34 million to America, 3 million to Canada, 2 million to Australia) from 1820-1920. Other countries, Italy, Germany, Greece, Russia, etc. had the same problems and contributed to the movement. |
| 1840's AD | Crop failures in Ireland forced large numbers to emigrate. |
| 1900's AD | Scotland had a large industrial output and probably the largest population of any time, despite the major emigrations still continuing. |
|
1999 AD |
Reestablishment of separate Scottish Parliament with control of local issues. |