Changes

== History ==

== History ==

Scotland has been inhabited since at least 8500BC, when the first [[Mesolithic]] hunter-gatherers are thought to have migrated to Scotland. These inhabitants showed advanced knowledge of astronomy, creating several [[Stonehenge]]-like sculptures.

Scotland has been inhabited since at least 8500BC, when the first [[Mesolithic]] hunter-gatherers are thought to have migrated to Scotland. These inhabitants showed advanced knowledge of astronomy, creating several [[Stonehenge]]-like monuments.

 

At the time of the [[Romans]] the tribes in what became Scotland were similar to those further south, and can be considered to be [[Celtic]] peoples.  Those from the North-East were called ‘Picti’ (Picts) by Roman writers, which could mean ‘painted people' and refer to tattoos.  The Romans never subdued these northern tribes, and after a brief period when the Antonine Wall between the Firths of Forth and Clyde was the Roman Empire’s northern frontier, they drew back and had [[Hadrian’s Wall]] as the frontier.  They did try and influence the tribes between the two Walls, and when kingdoms like Strathclyde emerged in the early [[Dark Ages]], their rulers often bore Roman names or titles, the dynasties having been founded by Roman officials. The Scots themselves began arriving as settlers I the West of Scotland at this time (AD 400-500).  They were from  a part of the north of [[Ireland]] and spoke Old Irish, which changed to become [[Scots Gaelic]], and eventually replaced Pictish.  They sometimes warred with the Picts and [[Britons]] and sometimes allied with them, but a unified kingdom under the Scottish king Kenneth Mac Alpin was established in AD 843, called ‘Alba’ (still the [[Gaelic]] name for Scotland).  This kingdom took over Strathclyde in the early 11th century.

==Union with England==

==Union with England==