Neolithic farming people seemed to have migrated to Northern Britain at around 4500 BC. They settled permanently with their animals, especially near the sea because it provided food for them and for their livestock and thus making them experts in fishing and at making wooden boats.

The next settlers, the Beaker People, used lots of stones in their burials and used to keep things enjoyed by that particular person during his/her lifespan, making his journey to the next World easier, They brought these stones from far off places and set them in circles, the best among them is Calanish in Isle of Lewis, where you can find thirteen of them standing in a circle.

The Beaker people also brought in the Bronze Age with their stone age axes, knifes and swords which were made from bronze in 1000 BC.

Around 400 BC they made many things from iron and the iron age started wars as they could now build stronger weapons. It also helped build stronger defenses such as towers or brochs for protection of families from outsiders.

Much of the best preserved broch is on the Shetland island if Mousa. The Celts continued coming here until Julius Caesar invaded in 56 BC.

Many iron age tribes lived on this island who apart from raiding, were busy with wresting a living, growing barley and oats, rearing sheep, hunting deer and fishing before the arrival of Romans in 43 AD.

By 80 AD the Roman Governor, Agricola, was fully secure in the South and so he invaded the North of Britain which partly gave way due to his fierce army.
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It was the Romans who drew the first map of Northern Britain with its 17 tribal territories.

By the year 500 Picts held most of the northern isles as the Romans had evacuated to defend their homeland from Germanic Barbarians.

However to the West there were Britons with Roman names, that suggests that they had Romanized the Celtic people.

On the West Coast lived the Scotti, who later gave their names to the Country as a whole and their language was Q-Celtic, from which was derived modern Gaelic.

From 800 AD, Norse looters started arriving and settling in Northern isles covering the whole of North East of Britain.

Inter marriages became a common thing and a Scotti King Kenneth MacAlpine who united Dalriada with Pictland in 843 was son of a Pictish Princess.

Kenneth and his successor gradually kept increasing the size of their kingdom, some times by force of arms or marriage and by 1034 were ruling almost all of Northern Britain.

He was not a proper King that we often refer to, but in Gaelic system Kings were selected by a group whose ancestors used to be Kings in ancient times. The tanist, the fittest of the successor, was chosen as a ruler. These later turned out to be dangerous titles as some other successor used to kill the tanist and seize the throne.

The Canmores, though they were not Royal, posed a great fighting threat and they started reforming the Church. By 1200 many monasteries were built in the country and Royal burghs were created controlling the towns by Gaelic speaking tribes.

However by 1550 a Northern version of the Anglo-Saxon became the local language.