The Historical Periods of Scotland

History is divided by historians into a number of distinct, named periods. Here is a rundown of some highlights of different periods of Scottish history.

Ancient Scotland

• Neolithic Scotland: c.12,000 BC to c. 2,750 BC

• The Beaker people and the Bronze Age: c. 2,750 BC to 750 BC

• The Iron Age and La Tène culture: c. 750 BC to 43 AD

• Roman Britain: 43 AD to 410 AD

• The spread of Christianity: c. 400 to c. 600

The Middle Ages

• The first of the Viking Raids: c. 795 to c. 825

• The disappearance of the Picts: c. 843

• The MacAlpin Dynasty: c. 843 to 1290

• The spread of feudalism: c. 1050 to 1150

• The Wars of Independence: 1296 to 1357

Early Modern Scotland

• The Scottish Reformation: 1560

• TheUnion of Crowns: 1603

• The National Covenant: 1638

• The Wars of the Three Kingdoms: 1638 to 1688

• The Union of Parliaments: 1707

The Modern Age

• Jacobite Rebellions: 1689 to 1745

• Industrialization: c. 1750 to 1850

• The Highland Clearances: c. 1780 to 1854

• The Great War: 1914 to 1918

• The Second World War: 1939 to 1945

• The Restoration of the Scottish Parliament: 1999