Timeline
- 79
- First Roman invasion of northern Britain under Agricola.
- 83
- Caledonian army defeated by Romans at battle of Mons Graupius.
- 139
- Antonine Wall built to subdue Lowland tribes and establish new frontier north of Hadrian’s Wall.
- 200
- Number of smaller tribes in northern Britain absorbed into two main groups: the Maeatae and the Caledones.
- 297
First mention of the Picts, recorded in a Latin poem
"a nation still savage and accustomed only to the hitherto semi-naked Picts and Hibernians as their enemies, yielded to Roman arms and standards without difficulty"
Eumenius, 297
- 500
- Scots Dal Riata tribe arrive from Ireland under leadership of Fergus mac Erc and settle in Argyll
- 563
- Columba arrives on Iona from Ireland bringing Christianity - start of conversion of Pictish kingdom to Christianity.
- 565
- Columba visits the Pictish King Bridei at his fort near Inverness
- 605
- English kingdom of Northumbria comes into existence, under leadership of King Ethelfrid.
- 685
- Battle of Dunnichen between Picts and Northumbrians - Picts are victorious ending Northumbrian domination and creating circumstances for the eventual foundation of Scotland.
- 711
- The Pictish King Nechtan invites Abbot Ceolfrith of Monkwearmouth to send masons to build a church of stone, dedicated to St Peter in Pictavia
- 793
- Viking invasion - Picts and Dal Riata unite against their common Norse enemy.
- 848
- Scots King Kenneth mac Alpin unites the kingdoms of the Scots and the Picts.
- 900
- Birth of 'Alba' and the emergence of the Scottish nation.