Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
History
Scotland's colourful and compelling history looms large, not just for visitors
to the country, but its inhabitants too. Often the nation's history has been
defined either by fierce internecine conflict or epic struggles with England,
yet from earliest times the influences of Ireland, Scandinavia and Continental
Europe have been as important, particularly in aspects of Scotland's creative
and cultural development. This has nurtured a sophistication and ambition
in Scots that few associate with the land of warring clans and burning
castles, peppering the country's story not just with tragic yet romantic
heroes, but also notable fighters, innovators and politicians.
Prehistoric Scotland
Scotland, like the rest of prehistoric Britain, was settled by successive waves of peoples
arriving from the east. hese first inhabitants were
hunter-gatherers
, whose heaps of
animal bones and shells have been excavated, amongst other places, in the caves along
the coast near East Wemyss in Fife. Around 4500 BC,
Neolithic farming peoples
from
the European mainland began moving into Scotland. To provide themselves with land
for their cereal crops and grazing for their livestock, they cleared large areas of upland
forest, usually by fire, and in the process created the characteristic moorland landscapes
of much of modern Scotland. hese early farmers established permanent settlements,
some of which, like
Skara Brae
on Orkney, were near the sea, enabling them to
supplement their diet by fishing and develop their skills as boat-builders.
Settlement spurred the development of more complex forms of religious belief. he
Neolithic peoples built large chambered burial mounds or
cairns
, such as
Maes Howe
in
Orkney. his reverence for human remains suggests a belief in some form of afterlife, a
concept that the next wave of settlers, the
Beaker people
, certainly believed in. hey
placed pottery beakers filled with drink in the tombs of their dead to assist the passage
of the deceased on their journey to, or their stay in, the next world. hey also built the
mysterious
stone circles
, thirty of which have been discovered in Scotland, including
that of
Callanish
(Calanais) on the Isle of Lewis. he exact function of the circles is still
unknown, but many of the stones are aligned with the sun at certain points in its
annual cycle, suggesting that the monuments are related to the changing of the seasons.
he Beaker people also brought the
Bronze Age
to Scotland. Bronze, an alloy of
copper and tin, was stronger and more flexible than flint, which had long been used
for axe-heads and knives. Agricultural needs plus new weaponry resulted in a state
of endemic warfare as villagers raided their neighbours to steal livestock and grain.
he Bronze Age peoples responded to the danger by developing a range of defences,
among them spectacular
hillforts
and
crannogs
, smaller settlements built on
artificial islands.
4500 BC
3000 BC
2000 BC
Neolithic people move
into Scotland.
Neolithic township of Skara
Brae built.
Callanish standing stones erected
on Lewis in the Western Isles.
