Scotland's history through the ages 70 AD

St Andrew - patron saint of Scotland
ST ANDREW - patron saint of Greece, Russia and Scotland - spread the word of God before he was crucified on an X-shaped cross known as a Saltire Cross.

83 AD
Mons Graupius, where the Romans defeated the Caledonii
DESPITE numbering 30,000, the Caledonians faced a better organised Roman army who won the battle but failed to fully capitalise on their victory.

832 AD
Saintly aid at the battle of Athelstaneford
PICTS and Scots defeated Athelstan's Angle army in East Lothian after timely intervention from St Andrew.

841
Reign of the House of Alpin
THE Royal house credited with uniting Scots and Picts to form the kingdom of Alba. But history is never that simple, and neither was the rise of the house of Alpin.

900
House of Kenneth
THE HOUSE of Kenneth spent much of its time fending off raids from Vikings in the north and England in the south, while coping with murderous intent at home.

1030
House of Malcolm
THE KINGS of the House of Malcolm reigned for only a short period, from 1005 to 1040 AD.

1050
Macbeth
IT IS hard to think of anyone who has had a worse press than the much-maligned anti-hero of the "Scottish Play", Shakespeare's Macbeth.

1058
House of Canmore
THE CANMORE dynasty reigned for over 200 years, starting peacefully but ending up facing Edward I - the Hammer of the Scots.

1263
Viking threat thwarted at Largs
THE BATTLE between King Alexander III of Scotland and Norwegian king Hakon Hakonsen ended Viking domination of the Western Isles.

1292
John Balliol
JOHN Balliol became Scots king after winning a battle of the political type with Robert the Bruce. Balliol's hold of the throne, however, was short-lived.

1298
Falkirk: site of William Wallace's final defeat
SOME 80,000 troops under Edward I defeated 30,000 Scots volunteers under William Wallace after John Comyn's cavalry fled at a crucial point in the battle.

1300
William Wallace
THE MAN and his myth are larger than life but there's no disguising the fact that Wallace was one of Scotland's greatest heroes.

1306
Robert the Bruce
CONTROVERSIAL warrior who took inspiration from an indefatigable spider and returned from hiding to lead Scotland to independence.

1307
Knights Templar
A MILITARY order formed during the 12th century, the Knights Templar became mythologised as guardians of spiritual secrets, such as the Ark of the Covenant and the Holy Grail.

The Black Douglas
A BOGEYMAN to the English, a hero to the Scots, Sir James Douglas was Robert the Bruce's right hand man.

1314
Bannockburn: the decisive victory over the English
ROBERT the Bruce's decisive victory over Edward II secured Scotland's status as an independent nation.

1320
The Declaration of Arbroath
THE KEY document in Scottish history sought to make legal the country's martial victories against England.

1371
Reign of the House of Stewart
THE ROYAL house that traces its origins to Robert the Bruce.

1388
Dead man's victory at the battle of Otterburn
A BLOODY scrum born out of quarreling noblemen and a desire for land.

1446
The many mysteries of Rosslyn Chapel
A RICHLY decorated medieval church on the outskirts of Edinburgh has inpsired many mystic theories.

1513
Flodden field, where the flower of Scottish manhood was slaughtered
JAMES IV's incursion into England in support of France ended in disastrous defeat with 10,000 Scots dead - including the King.

1546
John Knox
PERISTENT in his endeavours to bring acceptance of Protestantism to Scotland, John Knox was both admired and feared. Undeterred by his enemies, his efforts eventually led to the start of the Presbyterian Church.

1547
Strange courtship at Pinkie
HENRY VIII's army inflicted a heavy defeat on the Scots at Musselburgh, leading to English garrisons across the Lothians.

1561
Mary, Queen of Scots
ALONG with Robert the Bruce, Mary is probably the best known of Scotland's monarchs.

1567
King James VI (James I)
THE FIRST King of Great Britain, James came to the Scottish throne at the age of one when his mother Mary was exiled.

1588
The wreck of El Gran Grifón
SHIPS of the Spanish armada fleeing the English fleet followed a route round northern Scotland. El Gran Grifón did not make it past Shetland.

1594
John Napier: a leading mind in modern mathematics
JOHN NAPIER'S invention of logarithms made him the founding father of modern science

1689
Bonnie Dundee: Jacobite commander
JOHN Graham had an extraordinary contrasting reputation for being a 'Bluidy Clavers' to some and 'Bonnie Dundee' to others.

1690
Original Scottish Parliament
THE FIRST Scottish Parliament required many years to develop and, for many reasons, had a relatively short existence.

1692
Massacre of Glencoe
THE SECRETARY of State's dislike for Highlanders and other circumstances led to a massacre that prompted outrage across Britain and the government official's dismissal.

1698
The Darien scheme: a promising – yet flawed - idea
SCOTLAND'S doomed attempt to create its own empire in Central America.

1707
Union of Scotland with England
HOW SCOTLAND lost its independence - and the United Kingdom was born.

1720
Robert 'Rob Roy' MacGregor: outlaw and folk hero
CATTLE thief or folk hero? Rob Roy McGregor has been lionised in literature and enjoys a mixed reputation.

1728
The tug of war over the cargo of the Adelaar
THE WRECK of a Dutch merchantman off Barra led to an unseemly tussle over its cargo.

1745
Charles Edward Stewart: The Young Pretender
FEW figures in Scotland’s long history have led a more daring and colourful life than Charles Edward Stewart.

Prestonpans: Bonnie Prince Charlie's finest hour
BONNIE Prince Charlie's emphatic defeat of George II's government forces was perhaps one of the briefest battles on British soil.

1746
Flora MacDonald: Jacobite helper
ROWED Bonnie Prince Charlie 'over the sea to Skye' and herself into the history books.

Culloden: bloody scene of the defeat of the Jacobites
THE LAST pitched battle on British soil, where Bonnie Prince Charlie's Jacobite army was routed by government forces under the Duke of Cumberland, leading to brutal suppression of the Highland culture.

1760
David Hume: empirical philosopher
ONE OF the leading figures in the Scottish Enlightenment, David Hume's ideas brought him into conflict with Scotland's religious establishment.

1762
The Highland Clearances
THE STORY of how many Highlanders of Scotland were forcibly evicted from their homes - but found a new life in North America.

1775
John Paul Jones
1747 - 1792
TOILING the high seas as early as 13, this Scotsman is best known for fighting against the British in the Revolutionary War and helping to found what is now the US Navy.

Sawney Bean, the caveman cannibal
A MONSTROUS tribe terrorised the Ayrshire coast in the 18th century, feasting on the flesh of their victims.

1776
Adam Smith: founder of modern economic theory
BRILLIANT thinker whose economic theories have been embraced by the modern Western world.

1786
Robert Burns, Scotland's national bard
FROM LOWLY beginnings on an Ayshire farm, Robert Burns' work elevated him to the status of a national hero.

1788
Deacon Brodie: the real Jekyll and Hyde?
UPSTANDING citizen by day, burgler by night: It's a real-life story that led to one of literature's great works.

1829
Burke and Hare - murder for money?
THE STORY of two men who routinely supplied fresh corpses to Edinburgh's college of surgeons for study.

1847
James Young Simpson: founder of anaesthetics
THE PHYSICIAN who helped mothers through delivery and other distressed patients with his development of chloroform.

1855
David Livingstone: missionary and explorer
A CHRISTIAN missionary, David Livingstone explored over million square miles of the 'Dark Continent'.

1857
Madeleine Smith and her poisonous tale
THE STORY has all the makings of a great murder mystery, except it's true and the final ending may still be written.

1876
Alexander Graham Bell
THE SCOT who gave the world the telephone was inspired by a desire to help the deaf.

1880
Andrew Carnegie: industrialist and philanthropist
ANDREW Carnegie amassed a vast fortune from steel, giving away $350 million to good causes.

1882
Battle of the Braes: last stand against the Clearances
NEAR PORTREE on the Isle of Skye, angry crofters armed with sticks and stones confronted 50 policemen who had come to evict them on behalf of the landowner.

1900
James Keir Hardie - founder of the Scottish Labour Party
AFTER becoming the family breadwinner at age eight, James Keir Hardie went on to political prominence through his people-power movement.

1916
Battle of Jutland
THE DECISIVE naval encounter of the First World War left nearly 8,000 men dead.

HMS Hampshire, Lord Kitchener and the deaths of 650 men
A ROYAL Navy cruiser hit a mine off Orkney in 1916 - and locals were prevented from helping the stricken ship.

1918
The Iolaire disaster, where 200 men died yards from shore
MORE than 200 men returning from the horrors of the First World War lost their lives just 20 feet from safety.

1919
Scapa Flow: graveyard of the German fleet
AFTER the end of the First World War, 74 ships of the German fleet were anchored in Orkney - until their crews sank them in a gesture of defiance.

1926
John Logie Baird
THE FIRST to produce moving television images, the inventor's work was eventually overtaken by more efficient technologies.

1928
Alexander Fleming: discoverer of 'miracle drug' penicillin
AFTER training as a surgeon, he concentrated on bacteriology and accidentally discovered penicillin, leading to his Nobel Prize in 1945.

1940
Port Napier: a floating bomb off Skye
A CARGO steamer converted into a Second World War mine-layer caught fire with a full load of explosives on board.

1941
Taurus
A NORWEGIAN ship that took part in one of the Second World War's most dramatic breakouts lies in 20 fathoms of water off the north-east of Scotland.

SS Politician: Whisky galore off Eriskay
SCOTLAND'S most famous shipwreck proved to be a boon to the natives of the island of Eriskay.

1945
Avondale Park
THE LAST merchant ship to be sunk by a U-boat in the Second World War was hit by torpedoes less than an hour before Germany's official surrender.

1954
Hispania
THE SKIPPER of a Swedish ship wrecked off Mull went down with his ship, despite his crew pleading with him for an hour.

1997
Scottish Devolution: from White Paper to White Elephant?
THE PEOPLE of Scotland voted for greater control over the nation's day-to-day policies, bringing a devolved government back to Edinburgh after nearly 300 years.