The People of Scotland

Early Settlers

Following the last ice-age, c.8000 BC, as the ice retreats north man starts to spread through Scotland; they were hunter-gatherers who trapped animals, fished and gathered other food. They lived in shelters made from a wooden frame covered with skins or brushwood; they were also believed to use stone tools.

From c.4000 BC crops were being grown and animals domesticated with these ideas coming from other settlers from the east. While they still built wooden houses, these were larger than before. On the Orkney Islands, where wood was scarce, stone houses were built. The building of major monuments, like burial mounds, started around this time. Later, stone circles were built showing that man had strong religious beliefs and an understanding of the movement of the sun and possibly stars.

It is further believed that, from 900 to 300 BC, the Celts migrated west across Europe and over to Britain and Ireland. None of their remains have been found in Scotland that date before 50 to 150 AD and it is not clear how that are here arrived. However, Scotland was on the trade route between Ireland and Scandinavia and natives may have bartered food and hide for the bronze and copper items the traders carried.

• Picts
• Romans
• Scots of Dalriada
• Britons of Strathclyde
• Anglo-Saxons
• Vikings

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