3000 BC - 853 AD

3000 BC
The Neolithic village of Skara Brae established in Orkney.

1000-600 BC
Late Bronze Age people arrive in northern Britain from the Continent.

c. 500 BC
The voyages of the Carthaginian Himilco take note of the islands of Albion and Ierne.

350 BC
Roman historian and adventurer Pytheas publishes his account of the Western isles off the coast of northern Europe, calling them "Pretanic."

79-81
Roman general Agricola invades what is now southern Scotland.

84
At the Battle of Mons Graupius, the Roman armies defeat native tribesmen under Calgacus "the swordsman." The conquered land is called Caledonia, but less than twenty years later, the Romans are forced to withdraw.

121
Construction begins of stone-built Hadrian's Wall as a defensive barrier across northern Britain. It is defended by forts placed at strategic intervals and stretches from the Tyne to the Solway, a distance of 72 miles (116 kilometres).

141
Stretching from the Clyde to the Forth, turf-built Antonine Wall separating Caledonia to the north from Britannia to the south, acts as the northernmost defensive line for the Roman armies, but it will soon be abandoned as impractical.

150
Ptolemy refers to a group of five islands lying between what are now Scotland and Ireland, with a structural form known as the broch, a fortified dwelling. The best-preserved example remains at Mousa, Shetland.

196
Roman armies again withdraw from Northern Britain, but attempt a re-conquest a dozen years later under Emperor Septimius Severus.

367
Marcellinus of Rome identifies the Scotti and Picti as members of a "Barbarian conspiracy" to attack the northern frontier of the Empire in Britain.

382
Roman commander Magnus Maximus defeats the Picts.

397
Death of Scottish monk Ninian, whose religious establishment at Whithorn, in Galloway, is called Casa Candida.

5TH & 6TH CENTURIES
Invasions of the kingdom of Dalriada, Kintyre and the neighboring islands by the Scotti, from northern Ireland who will later give their name to the whole country.

500
The Roman legions from Britain withdrawal and the Scots further establish and strengthen their hold by slowly winning lands away from the native Picts by invasions under Fergus MacErc and his brothers.

563
St. Columba and a small band of Irish monks arrive to establish a monastery at Iona and to inaugurate Aidan as king of Dalriada. Iona becomes the ecclesiastical head of the Celtic Church in Britain and an important political center.

664
At the Synod of Whitby, in northern England, the Celtic Church is forced to adopt the rule of St. Peter and the Church of Rome rather than that of St. Columba.

685
The Picts, sorely pressed by both Celt and Gael, manage to defeat a force of invading Saxons at Nectansmere, but they soon disappear from history.

853
Kenneth MacAlpin dies. He united Picts, Scots, Britons and Angles to create a kingdom of Scotland.