An ancient land showing signs of human habitation thousands of years before the birth of Christ. A mixture of ancient Picts (who withstood the might of ancient Rome), Celtic "Scots" from Ireland (who began settling the country in the 5th century AD) and Normans (imported to defend against the English in the 13th Century). After centuries of struggle to preserve her independence, the Scot's parliament voted itself out of existence with the Act of Union creating a United Kingdom with England on 1/16/1707. Any lingering hope was fatally crushed with the defeat of Bonnie Prince Charlie's forces at the battle of Culloden in 1746. For an early map of Scotland (1500's) Click Here

King David (1123-1152), in an attempt to modernize his country divided it into administrative units by grouping parishes together as Shires under the civil administration of a judge known as a Shire Reeve, or sheriff.

The smallest administrate unit of the land organized by King David, parishes were both religious and civil entities.

Traditionally Scotland has been considered divided into the Lowlands and the ancient metamorphic melange, scoured of much of its top soil by glaciation, comprising the Highlands to the north. Like Canada, most of the population of the country is located along a fertile band to the south, with the rocky highlands comprising 1/2 of the land mass. For most of it's history the Highlands were a roadless, mountainous, waterlogged land, sparsely populated with rival clans, it's rugged terrain making it militarily difficult to penetrate. The Highlands were popularized by the works of Sir Walter Scott, and Queen Victoria made them a favoured tourist destination.

The Lowlands are actually comprised of the Midland Valley and the Southern Uplands. The cities of Edinburgh, Glasgow and Dundee together with numerous towns, most of the population and the majority of Scotland's industry is located within the Midland Valley. This broad valley averages 50 miles in length and runs like a belt across the waist of the country. It is geologically distinct from the surrounding regions, being composed of Devonian Old Red Sandstone, peppered with ancient volcanoes, as against the older sedimentary rocks forming the Southern Uplands .

Located off the west coast of the Scottish mainland at the southern tip of the larger Isle of Mull, Iona is only 4.8 km in length and 2.4 km wide but no where is richer in history. Traditional crowning and burial place for the Kings of Scotland, 48 Kings of Scots, Dalriadic or Pictish, 4 Kings of Ireland, 8 Kings or Princes of Norway, 1 King of France and 1 of Northumbria are buried here. Iona was the landing place for St. Columba and it was here he built the first Christian Abbey in Scotland in 563. Click Here

One of the world's most beautiful cities grew up around Edinburgh Castle, seat of Scottish Kings and a renowned defensive stronghold well before the Roman's landed here. The oldest building in the castle, St. Margaret's Chapel, has withstood 900 years of siege and bombardment. It was here in Edinburgh Castle that Mary Queen of Scots gave birth to James VI who united the thrones of Scotland and England when he assumed the English throne as King James I after the death of Queen Elizabeth in 1603. Click Here

Originally a small University and ecclesiastical centre, in the wake of the tragic Land Clearances, the town of Glasgow swelled into one of Scotland's major cities, and the economic powerhouse of the nation. In its heyday, cotton employed 1/3 of the work force. With cotton's decline during the American Civil War, the nearby abundance of coal and iron ore led to the development of major heavy industries such as shipbuilding and locomotive construction. Between 1870 and 1914, Glasgow ranked as one of the richest and finest cities in Europe. It is now home to over 600,000 people. Click Here

Holyrood Abbey was founded by King David after he was miraculously saved from the wrath of an enraged stag after he was thrown from his horse. The King's chaplain held the Holyrood, The Black Rood of Scotland, before the animal frightening it away and saving the life of the King. The "holyrood" was said to be a piece of Christ's Cross owned by David's mother St. Margaret. James II was born in the Abbey, James III and IV were married there, as was Mary Queen of Scots. Charles I, was crowned there. However, the old Abbey was destroyed in the religious fervor of the Reformation. Holyrood Palace now stands beside it's ruins. Click Here

Scotland includes 787 islands, of which most belong to groups known as the Hebrides, Orkney and Shetland. Only 62 exceed three square miles in area. The first Lord of the Isles was the great Somerled from whom the MacDonalds,MacDougalls and other major clans descend. He drove the Vikings from the West Coast of Scotland and the Hebrides to found his own sub-kingdom, around 1150.

No one knows what they called themselves. Controversial Canadian author and naturalist, Farley Mowat calls them the Albans, those earliest people to settle what is now Scotland and even suggests they played a roll in the discovery of North America (highly unlikely). Arriving shortly after the retreat of the last glacial period, about 7000 years ago, what the Albans did accomplish was remarkable. Arriving even before the first trees appeared on the land they learned to live and survive on the sea. Building seaworthy boats they eventually reached and settled many of the off shore islands, certainly reaching even as far afield as Iceland. A megalithic culture they built great stone circles and one of the finest megalithic structures of them all, the tomb known as Maeshowe. But it was their abilities as walrus hunters that brought them to the notice of the wider world. For Orkney Stone Click Here

Fully six centuries before the birth of Christ, the Phoenicians had founded the village of Massilia at the mouth of the Rhine and had established trade routes with Britain, the North Sea and the Baltic. One of the most prized trading commodities in the Mediterranean was the ivory tusks of the walrus. The Greek Philosopher Pytheas accompanied the Phoenicians on one of their trading voyages around 330 B.C. eventually reaching the Albans, the peoples of the Hyperborea (the land beyond the north wind), source of the prized walrus ivory. He found them to be skilled artisans, living in small clans composed of a dozen or so stonewalled, sod-thatched buildings whose shaggy cattle, horses, goats and sheep lived out doors year round.

The Picts of Alba were a profoundly religious sun worshiping Celtic race of warriors who resisted the might of the Roman Empire and stopped its advance in its tracks. "Pict" is the name the Roman's gave them, but to themselves they were the Cruithne. The name "Pict" is thought to derive either from their use of pictures and symbols in place of written language or from their ability to weave multicoloured cloth. The idea the name derives from their painting their bodies blue is now largely discredited. The Picts were ruled by a High King who was appointed by the ri, or lesser kings, the mormaors (great officers) of the seven provinces into which the land was divided. In this, somewhat democratic system, the ri choose the best person for High King, not necessarily the next in-line. They could also depose the King, a safeguard against despotism. For Pict Symbols Click Here

Agricola, the Roman Governor of Britain, pushed the boundaries of the Empire into what is now Scotland in 79 AD. By 81 he had established a band of forts across the Isthmus between Glasgow and Edinburgh. The Roman advance was stopped at a fierce battle between the Howe of Mearns and Stonehaven where the Picts were defeated with the loss of 10,000 men--but the advance of the Roman Empire was halted here, forever. Increasingly ferocious Pict attacks eventually pushed the Roman army back to the Solway Tyne line where the Emperor Hadrian would eventually build a wall in an unsuccessful attempt to isolate them from the rest of Britain. Unfortunately, Agricola had established the paradigm of attempts by the various rulers of England who would be enticed by thoughts of conquering that unruly northern realm for centuries to come. To view the ruins of a Roman Fort at Hadrian's Wall Click Here

The Scotti, a small group of Celtic Irish immigrants to the Dalriada, or Argyll, area began arriving in the late 4th or early 5th centuries. In 597 Colum Cille, Irish monk and bard, who is honored in all the celtic lands, died. Better known as Saint Columba. He was a cousin of Niall of the Nine Hostages. Born in 521 at Gartan in Donegal, he is one of the twelve apostles of Eirann. Colum Cille was banished from his beloved Ireland being blamed for the great battle of Cuildremne in Sligo. He settled in Iona where his kinsman King Conel was. From there he took the Gospel to the Picts, the Brits and the Saxons, eventually baptizing Brude mac Maelchon, High King of the Picts in 565 and establishing the Columban Church and Christianity as the religion of the land. In 574 he crowned Aiden as King of Dalraida on the Stone of Destiny, which was possibly his own portable alter. The Scots never outnumbered the Picts but did intermarry with them and by 843 Kenneth MacApline, King of Dalriada was crowned High King of the Picts and in time the Picts began calling themselves Scots and the country Scotland.

Members of the Teutonic tribes that had settled first into Denmark and then into Sweden and Norway, their violent presence was first felt in the Orkney and Shetland islands near the end of the seventh century and they had completely taken over the Northern and Western Islands by 711. By 765 the coastal regions of Caithness, Sutherland and Ross were overrun. In 802 St. Columba's famous monastery on Iona was sacked and burned. By the ninth century few places in all of the British Isles were safe from the fury of the Norse. Along with the pillaging, slaughter, rape and enslaving came settling and intermarriage. By the early years of the 11th century, the famous Viking,Thorfinn Raven-Feeder, had become Earl of Orkney and was made also Earl of Caithness, which made him also a mormaor, one of the ri of Scotland. Incidentally, Thornfinn was also the half brother of Macbeth Mac Finley--the future subject of one of Shakespean's greatest dramas. For Viking ship Click Here

Scotland's great and troubled neighbour to the south, England was conquered many times by many peoples when she wasn't engaged in her own civil wars. In many ways England's experience provided a surprising archetype for the later experiences of the United States. Consider the parallels: England was the New World of its time separated from Europe by water, her native peoples were defeated by the superior technology of the Europeans. She was fought over by successive European peoples, first the Romans, then the Angles, Saxons and Jutes, then the Normans. She was engaged in a great and bitter civil war and with the signing of the Magna Carta took the first major steps toward democracy. A cultural melting pot, she went on to become the the most powerful nation of her time.

Although the Normans, under William the Conqueror, lived in France and spoke French, they were fairly recent Viking settlers in the Normandy region of France, an area gained by treaty with King Charles the Simple in 911. Descendants of Rolf the Granger (Thorfinn Raven-Feeder was his brother's son), they had turned from being the preeminent warriors of the sea to mastering the art of war on land. Perfecting heavy cavalry and archery they had become the most potent fighting force in the world at the time. After their conquest of England in 1066, the names of these Norman nobles begin appearing in Scotland's records. Many of the younger sons's of these nobles accompanied David when he claimed Scotland's throne in 1112. Among the famous Scottish families descended from the Normans are the Fraser, Lindsay, Bruce, Stewart, Comyn, Melville, Gordon, Montgomery, Chisholm, and Baille.

The thrones of Scotland and England were united under James VI of Scotland who also assumed the throne of England as James I. However, when his descendant, Queen Anne died childless, the English parliament passed over her half brother James Stewart, a Catholic, as monarch choosing instead the German Protestant Hanoverian Prince George as successor to the British Throne. The Scottish people were outraged and fear that the Scottish Parliament would declare James (VII) rightful King of Scotland, was one of the compelling reasons for dissolution of the Scottish Parliament with the Act of Union in 1707. Bonnie Prince Charlie was James' son who fought for his father's rightful claim to the thrones of Scotland and England. He was defeated at Culloden by the forces of the 24 year old German born son of the new King George, William Augustus the Duke of Cumberland

Arguably, Canada might not exist if it were not for the Frasers, whose 78th Highland Regiment of Foot contributed so greatly to Wolfe's victory on the Battle of the Plains of Abraham in Quebec. With the 78th disbanding in Canada and the men getting land grants as reward, they formed a nucleus of Scottish culture around which many other immigrants rallied. Party due to the terrible Land Clearances, appalling economic conditions at home, a Victorian love of adventure and challenge, and, eventually an intense marketing campaign by the Canadian Government, a significant percentage of the population of Scotland moved to Canada. In fact, during Queen Victoria's reign, Scotland lost over a quarter of her entire population to emigration, a proportion unequaled by any other country on the planet. The Province of Nova Scotia lives up to its name as the new Scotland. Indeed, thanks to such Scots as Simon Fraser, Alexander MacKenzie, Sir John A. MacDonald, and Alexander Graham Bell, Scots ARE the history of the country, particularly in its earliest years.