Ghost Mine Case Notes

The History of Scotland and Glasgow

The Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is made up of four countries – England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. The island of Great Britain holds England, Scotland and Wales – and Northern Ireland lies across the Irish Sea.

Scotland is the northern third of Great Britain. It includes several Western islands off the coast of northern Europe. Its history involves settlement and invasion by many different peoples, going back 8000 years. We have no written or oral records of most of this time, but archaeologists have pieced together many historical details.

Early settlers

The first settlers may have come from the European mainland after the Ice Age, when the ice melted. They were nomadic hunters, with no permanent homes. Around 3000 BC the Neolithic people built stone houses, and you can see some of these today at the Skara Brae village in Orkney.

The next people to arrive were the Picts, a fierce warlike tribe who settled in the north – and the Scots who migrated from Ireland. The Scots called the land ‘Scotland’ after their word Scotia.

The Romans

Around 350 BC the Romans sailed around the Scottish islands, and named them “Pretanic”. They conquered England, and called it Britania. Around 80 BC, they invaded the southern part of Scotland and called this Caledonia. Twenty years later the Picts forced them to leave.

In 121 AD the Picts and Scots started to built Hadrian’s Wall as a defence against the south. The wall was made of stone, and was 72 miles (116 kilometres) long – with several forts built into it. In 141 AD the Romans also built their own wall, further south, as a defence for their armies. They used hunks of soil and grass, called turf, but it wasn’t strong enough and so they abandoned it.

Over the next 200 years, the Romans tried to conquer Scotland several times, finally defeating the Picts in 382 AD.

Scotland and England

When the Roman Empire came to an end, Scotland became independent again and was a wealthy country until the 14th Century. Its armies fought many battles with England, which was determined to conquer it. Scotland remained independent until 1707, when the Act of Union was passed, which brought the two countries together.

Glasgow

Glasgow is one of Scotland’s three major cities, and was founded by a Christian missionary, St. Mungo. The other two cities are Edinburgh and Dundee.

When the Act of Union joined Scotland with England, Scotland was able to trade with North America using its own ports. Glasgow became an important port city. James Watt developed his steam engine nearby and this helped to develop the city’s steel mills, shipbuilding and railway building industries. By the late 1800s, Glasgow was the second largest city in the British Empire after London.

Scotland today

Modern Scotland is very hilly in parts and has three main regions: the Highlands, the Lowlands and the Southern Uplands. It’s famous for its lakes (called Lochs) - especially Loch Ness, home of the Loch Ness Monster. Glasgow is in the Central Lowlands, where the river Clyde meets the Atlantic Ocean.

Many Scots have come to live in Australia. They came voluntarily, or by force – sent by the British government as convicts and political prisoners.

Scottish migrants have played an important part in the wool industry in Australia. Scottish miners came to South Australia in the 1840s to find wealth in the copper mines. Later they moved to the gold fields of Victoria and New South Wales where they were joined by many more Scots trying to strike it rich.