Scotland

Scotland forms part of the United Kingdom, covering the northern section of Great Britain plus nearby islands, especially those in the Hebrides and Northern Isles archipelagos. Edinburgh serves as the capital, while Glasgow holds the title of the country’s largest and most populous city. As of 2022, roughly 5.4 million people live there. To the south lies England; the Atlantic Ocean borders the north and west; the North Sea lies to the east; and the Irish Sea sits to the southwest.

The Scottish Parliament consists of 129 members representing 73 constituencies, and the Scottish Government—the devolved executive branch—is led by a first minister who heads the cabinet and oversees policy and international relations. The Kingdom of Scotland first emerged as a sovereign state during the 9th century. It maintained independence from England partly through an alliance with France. In 1603, James VI inherited the thrones of England and Ireland, creating a personal union among the three kingdoms.

On 1 May 1707, Scotland and England merged to form the Kingdom of Great Britain, with Scotland’s parliament absorbed into the new Parliament of Great Britain. A Scottish Parliament was re-established in 1999, gaining devolved authority over many domestic policy areas. Scotland retains its own legal system, education system, and religious history, all of which have helped preserve Scottish society, culture, and national identity. Scottish English and Scots are the most widely spoken languages, existing along a dialect continuum.

Scottish Gaelic speakers live throughout Scotland but are concentrated in the Hebrides, where the language is spoken natively; Gaelic speakers now make up less than 2% of the population, though state-backed revitalisation efforts have fostered a growing community of second-language speakers. Mainland Scotland divides broadly into three regions: the Highlands in the north and northwest, a mountainous area; the Lowlands, a flatter central plain; and the Southern Uplands, a hilly zone along the southern border.

The Highlands are the most mountainous part of the British Isles, containing Ben Nevis, the highest peak at 1,345 metres. This region also features many lakes, called lochs—a term that also applies to the numerous saltwater inlets along the deeply indented western coastline. The islands vary greatly in geography: some, like Mull and Skye, are known for mountainous terrain, while others, such as Tiree and Coll, are flatter. The name “Scotland” derives from Scoti, the Latin term for the Gaels.

Philip Freeman has suggested that a group of raiders may have adopted a name from an Indo-European root, skot, drawing a parallel with the Greek word skotos (meaning “darkness”). The Late Latin word Scotia (“land of the Gaels”) originally referred to Ireland, and early Old English used Scot for Ireland as well. By at least the 11th century, Scotia was used for Gaelic-speaking Scotland north of the River Forth, alongside Albania or Albany, both from the Gaelic Alba.

The use of “Scots” and “Scotland” to cover all of modern Scotland became common in the Late Middle Ages. The earliest evidence of humans in Scotland comes from Hamburgian culture stone tools left by late Upper Paleolithic hunter-gatherers, who arrived during the Bølling–Allerød Interstadial warm period around 14,500 to 14,000 years ago, shortly after the retreat of the ice sheet that once covered the region. Neolithic farmers arrived about 6,000 years ago, leaving behind the well-preserved village of Skara Brae on Orkney’s mainland.

Neolithic settlements, burial sites, and ritual structures are especially common and well preserved in the Northern and Western Isles, where a lack of trees meant most buildings were made from local stone. Sophisticated pre-Christian belief systems are evident at sites like the Callanish Stones on Lewis and Maes Howe on Orkney, both built in the third millennium BC. The first written mention of Scotland comes from the Greek sailor Pytheas in 320 BC, who called the northern tip of Britain “Orcas,” giving rise to the name “Orkney.”

Most of modern Scotland was never part of the Roman Empire, and Roman control over parts of the area was brief and fluctuating. The first Roman incursion occurred in 79 AD, when Agricola invaded and defeated a Caledonian army at the Battle of Mons Graupius in 83 AD. After this victory, Roman forts were briefly established along the Gask Ridge near the Highland line, but within three years the armies withdrew to the Southern Uplands. Remains of 1st-century Roman forts have been found as far north as the Moray Firth.

By the reign of Emperor Trajan, Roman control had receded to Britain south of a line between the River Tyne and the Solway Firth. Along this line, Trajan’s successor Hadrian built Hadrian’s Wall in northern England, making the Limes Britannicus the empire’s northern border. Roman influence in southern Scotland was considerable, and they introduced Christianity to the area. The Antonine Wall was built from 142 AD under Hadrian’s successor Antoninus Pius, defending the Roman part of Scotland from the unadministered region north of a line between the Firth of Clyde and the Firth of Forth.

The Roman invasion of Caledonia from 208 to 210 was carried out by emperors of the Severan dynasty in response to local unrest.