Scottish Timeline

 

Following the end of the last Ice Age around 10,000 years ago, Scotland was inhabited by growing bands of nomadic Mesolithic hunter-gatherers. They inhabited a landscape of forest and meadow, and hunted elk, bear, wolf, lynx and many other animals now long gone from our countryside. Around 4000 years BC, a new technology and culture arrived, originating in the Middle East. With them came farming, animal husbandry and a complex social structure. This was the Neolithic period.

 

c.3180 BC – First known occupation of Skara Brae on the Orkney Islands

 

c.2800 – 2500 BC – The erection of much of the Neolithic heart of Orkney, including Maes Howe and the Ring of Brodgar

 

Around 2000 BC metal work appears in the Scottish archaeological records, and new types of pottery mark a cultural shift, possibly associated with climate change and the arrival from Europe of new technologies and religious practices. The great stone monuments cease to be built, and people are less community driven. This is the start of the Bronze Age

 

Around 750BC, we see the arrival of iron working, mastery of the horse the construction of hillforts and brochs. The Iron Age, ushers in what is commonly referred to as a Celtic culture. This is most likely when the two main branches of the Celtic languages (Gaelic and Brythonic (Welsh) enter the British Isles. Scotland becomes divided into several ‘Celtic’ tribes and petty kingdoms who squabble over the land and resources until 43AD and the arrival of the Roman Legions in to Southern England.

 

AD 83 – The Roman legions under the command of Agricola defeat the Caledonian tribes of the Scottish Highlands at the Battle of Mons Graupius. However the Romans fail to consolidate the victory.

 

122 – The Emperor Hadrian begins work on the famous Hadrian’s Wall in what is now northern England. South of the wall, England remains under Roman jurisdiction until the 420s, Scotland evolves free of Roman rule

 

397 – St Ninian establishes a monastic settlement at Whithorn in Galloway. The earliest known Christian site in Scotland

 

From 400 to 850 Scotland is dominated by four principal peoples and kingdoms – in the southwest, the Britons of Strathclyde; the southwest, the Anglo-Saxons of Northumbria; the west and Argyll, the Gaels (or Scots) and the rest, by the Picts (a people who probably spoke a language of the Welsh family). Constant warfare and the establishment of Christian settlements would dominate the period

 

563 – The influential and enigmatic St Columba establishes a monastery on the Island of Iona. It would become a beacon of religious light for the next 300 years

 

747 – St Andrews is founded as a Christian settlement

 

802 – Iona is attacked by Viking raiders from Norway. It ushers in a dark period of Norse control of the Scottish Islands, and precipitates a centralising of power in eastern Scotland around the lower River Tay

 

839 – Viking warriors defeat a joint Gaelic and Pictish army, paving the way for a unification of the two kingdoms

 

853 – Pictland and Dalriada of the Gaels are united under one crown and one king – Kenneth MacAlpine. The new kingdom is called Alba.

 

By 1000, Alba has evolved into Scotland with Gaelic established as the principal language of the country out with Lothian, which is still under English rule. Viking rule is however extended in the west and in the north, with most of Argyll, Sutherland and Caithness under their sway. The province of Moray around Inverness and Elgin would also appear to be semi-autonomous. The increasingly powerful Scottish monarchy would now deal with all these issues.

 

1018 – King Malcolm II defeats the Northumbrian king, takes Edinburgh and extends Scotland’s border to the River Tweed, where it has thus remained.

 

1058 – Malcolm Canmore defeats King Macbeth, and is crowned as Malcolm III. Macbeth was from Moray, and with his demise on the Scottish throne the Canmores take full control of the province. They also push the Norse from Sutherland and Caithness.

 

1124 – David I becomes king, and introduces the Feudal System to Scotland based on the English model. English also becomes the dominant language of trade and of the Scottish Lowlands

 

1234 – The ancient Kingdom of Galloway is absorbed into Scotland

 

1263 – Alexander III defeats the Norwegian king at the Battle of Largs, paving the way for a hand-over of the Western Isles to Scotland. The near 500 year Viking rule of the Hebrides comes to an end officially in 1266.

 

1286 – Alexander III is killed in an accident. His death precipitates a succession crisis. In 1292 the English king, Edward I is asked to adjudicate – he chooses John Balliol as king

 

1296 – The puppet king, John rebels and Edward invades Scotland

 

From 1296 to 1314 Scotland faces both a war of aggression by England, and a civil war of succession. The ultimate Scottish victory over Edward II would come to define the nation, and her struggle against a stronger and more powerful neighbour.

 

1297 – Sir Andrew Moray and William Wallace defeat the English as Stirling Bridge. However, Moray was killed. A year later Wallace would be defeated at Falkirk, and ultimately hang, drawn and quartered in London as a traitor

 

1306 – Robert the Bruce, claimant to the throne is crowned in secret and in defiance of the English

 

1314 – Robert the Bruce defeats the English at Bannockburn, securing Scotland’s renewed freedom

 

1320 – The nobles of Scotland sign the Declaration of Arbroath – asserting Scottish independence and the sovereignty of the people. It sees a new covenant between people and king. It is the start of a Scottish constitution.

 

1411 – St Andrews University, the oldest in Scotland is established

 

 472 – Having failed to pay James III a dowry, the Danish king hands Orkney and Shetland over to Scotland in lieu of the debt. The final vestiges of Norse rule are gone.

 

1493 – The powerful MacDonald Lordship of the Isles is abolished by the Crown: it ushers in a new combative dark age of clan warfare in the Highlands

 

1513 – In support of his ally the French king, James IV invades England. The huge Scottish army is annihilated at Flodden, with much of the nobility and knighthood killed. The king is also killed and his body never found. Scotland never fully recovers from this massive psychological blow.

 

1532 – The Court of Session, the highest civil court in Scotland is established

 

1560 – The Lords of Congregation and the firebrand preacher John Knox abolish the Catholic Church in Scotland, and establish a Reformation and a new Protestant Church of Scotland. All against the wishes of the Catholic queen

 

1561 – Mary Queen of Scots arrives back into Scotland from France. From the start she faces hostile enemies at every turn. After two disastrous marriages, and a defeat in battle in 1568 she finally flees to England. Her baby son, James is crowned king

 

1587 – Suspecting a Catholic plot, Machiavellian advisers to the English queen, Elizabeth convince her that Mary is acting against her. At Fotheringay castle, Mary is executed. Her son, James VI does nothing, aware that his silence will buy him the English throne.

 

1603 – Elizabeth I dies. Her cousin, James VI of Scotland is proclaimed and crowned as the king of England at Westminster Abbey in London. He calls his new realm – Great Britain. However, Scotland and England would remain separate and independent nations for another hundred years.

 

1614 – Napier invents Logarithms

 

1633 – The Education Act looks to provide a school in every parish and a universal free education: a major influence for the Enlightenment.

 

1638 – The Scottish Covenanters rebel against King Charles I and his attempts to introduce English ecclesiastical practices in Scotland. It leads to revolution and the overthrow of the king’s authority in Scotland. Civil war ensues.

 

The rebellion of the Covenanters would ultimately lead to a war in England between king and parliament. Traditionally called the ‘English Civil War’ today it is more properly called the ‘War of the Three Kingdoms’. Ultimately, the army under Oliver Cromwell would come to dominate and in 1649 he executed Charles I, and established a military dictatorship.

 

1649 – The Scots immediately proclaim Charles II as king and crown him at Scone – the last monarch to be crowned in Scotland.

 

1650 – Oliver Cromwell invades Scotland and defeats the Scottish army at Dunbar. He extends his authority north, dissolves the Scottish parliament and declares himself as Lord Protector

 

1660 – The Restoration. Charles Stuart (Charles II) returns to London. He never goes back to Scotland

 

1688/89 – James VII (and II of England) is forced into exile for his adherence to the Catholic faith. He is replaced by William of Orange as king. The Scots sign the Claim of Right, which trammels the power of the crown in Scotland.

 

1689 – Not all Scots are in agreement with the removal of James, and his followers are known as Jacobites. They win a spectacular victory over the Government at Killiecrankie in Perthshire. However, their inspirational leader is killed, and the rebellion fizzles out a few months later.

 

1692 – The Massacre of Glencoe. 38 men women and children of the Clan Donald were butchered at the hands of a government bent on bringing the Highlands to heel.

 

1698-1700 – Scotland embarks on the ill-fated Darien scheme. Nearly a third of the nation’s wealth and nearly all the colonists are lost in the swamps of Panama. This seriously weakened the country, and left it with little room to manoeuvre when a succession crisis in 1701 precipitated an inevitable union with England

 

1707 – The Treaty of Union with England. Following a long protracted negotiation, and some economic home truths, Scotland was left with no option. Scotland and England ceased to be independent nations, but with the bulk of wealth and population in England, it would come to dominate in the new United Kingdom. Scots Law and the independence of her Church were retained.

 

1715 – The ’15 Jacobite Rebellion. This arose with the death of the last Stuart monarch, Anne and the succession of George of Hanover (the highest placed Protestant on the order of succession). Many in Scotland still supported the exiled House.

 

1745-46 – The ’45 Rebellion, led by Charles Edward Stuart. Although initially successful, the cause would come to a bloody end at Culloden in 1746: the last battle on British soil. Charles however, did manage to escape, but the Jacobite cause was over.

 

In the years that followed Culloden Scotland underwent a series of social revolutions. Freed from the threat of a Stuart restoration, and with southern money finally flowing north, the country entered a period of Enlightenment: a period of scientific, economic and philosophical advancement. There was also great improvements in agriculture and disease eradication – this in turn led to a 4 fold increase in Scotland’s population by 1900. On the back of this came the Industrial Revolution, where Scotland became one of the great engine-rooms of the world. On a darker note, social reform in the Highlands was often brutal and led to wholesale evictions and removal of people from their native glens. This period, from around 1770 to 1845 was known as the Highland Clearances.

 

1769 – James Watt’s engineering advances and changes to the workings of the steam engine, propel Scotland’s industrial revolution.

 

1771 – Sir Walter Scott, one of the main movers and shakers in the romanticising of Scotland, and the world’s first superstar author is born

 

1776 – Adam Smith publishes the ‘Wealth of Nations’ and gives birth to modern economic theory and capitalism

 

1796 – Robert Burns, the national poet, who wrote Auld Lang Syne and My love is like a red, red rose dies

 

1802 – James Hutton publishes his theories on geology and the formation of the earth. Today he is considered the father of the discipline

 

1822 – King George IV visits Edinburgh, the first reigning monarch to do so since the coronation of Charles II in 1649. His visit was choreographed by Sir Walter Scott, and the king wore a kilt

 

1828 – The Trial of William Burke for mass murder and body snatching (one of the famous pair, Burke and Hare). Hare pled for the Crown and was pardoned, Burke was hanged. There is no evidence that they were actual grave robbers.

 

1843 – The Church of Scotland splits in a schism. The argument is over the use of patronage in the choice of ministers, but leads to a bigger fight over the role of the State and secular courts in Church business.

 

1859 – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the author of Sherlock Holmes is born

 

1872 – The world’s first international football match takes place at Lesser Hampden in Glasgow between Scotland and England. The result was 0-0

 

1876 – Scotsman, Alexander Graham-Bell receives his patent for the Telephone

 

1890 – The famous and stunning Forth Rail Bridge is opened

 

In 1914 Great Britain went to war against Kaiser Wilhelm’s Germany; and while many thought the war would last months it dragged on for four blood-soaked years. The Scottish regiments provided the vanguard, and lost a disproportionate number of casualties as a result. By 1919 and the peace talks, Scotland had emerged a different country; more left wing and radical. There were calls for Home Rule and social improvements, and the new Labour party was founded and led by many Scots.

 

1919 – New Year’s Day – The Iolaire, a yacht turned troop-carrier sank in Stornoway harbour crammed full of soldiers returning from the war. Over 200 lost their lives, many within sight of their own homes. After surviving the carnage of the war, it was particularly tragic.

 

1926 – John Logie Baird gives his first public demonstration of his new invention – television

 

1928 – Alexander Fleming discovers mould destroying a bacteria culture, he calls it penicillin. It is one of the greatest medical discoveries of all time, and earned Fleming the Nobel Prize in 1945

 

The Second World War again sees tens of thousands of Scottish soldiers heading off to fight in various theatres of conflict. Although not as deadly as the First War, there is an increasing demand for social change, especially in the slums of Glasgow in the aftermath. Glasgow and in particular Clydebank were heavily bombed by the Luftwaffe during the blitz.

 

1947 – In part to lift the gloom that had been during the war years and the rebuilding that followed, Edinburgh hosts its first International Festival, now the largest and most famous in the world.

 

1950 – Ian Hamilton and three others remove the coronation stone, the Stone of Destiny from Westminster Abbey and return it to Scotland, where it had been stolen by Edward I in 1296. Although the stone is handed back to the authorities it was a wake-up call to the realities of a growing sense of Scottish nationalism and the independence movement

 

1968 – The Church of Scotland allows the ordination of Women Ministers

 

1988 – Pan Am flight 103 explodes over the village of Lockerbie, killing 270 (including 11 on the ground).

 

1996 – The Stone of Destiny is returned on loan to Scotland on a permanent basis

 

1997 – The Scotland Act is passed, creating a provision for a Scottish Parliament

 

1999 – The Scottish Parliament, a devolved political structure, sits in session for the first time since 1707.

 

2004 – The Queen opens the new Parliament building at Holyrood in Edinburgh.