Once the ice departed 12,000 years ago, lichens, grasses and then trees colonised our hills and glens. Animals quickly arrived to exploit the developing environment and then, possibly some 8,000 years ago, mankind entered the glen.
These were stone-age people who left little trace as they lived in caves and makeshift shelters, but we believe they crossed the English Channel from Europe when there was still a land bridge and made their way northwards over the next seven millennia.
About 5,000 years ago the people began farming and formed communities. Around 500BC there was an invasion from Ireland. These were the Picts, the first of the Celtic peoples to arrive in this land quickly overcoming the remnants of the bronze age Highlanders.
In the sixth century AD more Irish people arrived and these new arrivals were called Scots and were also Celtic.
Within decades the Picts and Scots had unified and became known as Scotland. King Kenneth (843AD) is sometimes thought of as the first king of Scotland and Scotland is therefore the oldest kingdom in the world which is still a kingdom to this very day, so a proud and unique claim.
Macbeth (unfairly maligned by Shakespeare) introduced the first police force in the eleventh century, but many battles marked the passing decades and Scotland was eventually overrun by Edward of England at the end of the thirteenth century, despite valiant efforts by William Wallace.
In 1328 independence was finally secured by King Robert The Bruce and English claims on Scotland were f inally defeated. In fact, it is the Scottish royal line which prevailed and the current monarch of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is descended from King Robert The Bruce of Scotland.