By the time Kenneth MacAlpin (Cinead mac Ailpín in the original Gaelic) became king of Dalriada, the conjoined kingdom of Ireland and north-west Scotland, links between the Gaels and the Picts had been growing closer over several generations, cemented by intermarriage among their leading families. MacAlpin’s own mother was a Pict, and – in a striking precursor of the 1603 union of the Scottish and English crowns – he was able to claim the Pictish throne in 843, through its matrilineal law of succession. The alliance may also have been facilitated by the pressure of Viking raids into the Pictish mainland.

As was indicated by its elected name of Alba, an old Gaelic word for Britain, the Gaels quickly achieved the cultural upper hand in this fledgling kingdom. Despite the Picts’ territorial and numerical supremacy, and MacAlpin’s establishment of his capital and court at Forteviot in Perthshire, the heart of former Pictland, their language and culture suffered a swift and comprehensive collapse, leaving little more than those enigmatic carved stones, and an abundance of Scottish place-names beginning with 'Pit-'.

While this first, profoundly symbolic step towards the creation of a Scottish state was achieved more or less bloodlessly, however, it would take almost two centuries more before the country was consolidated into anything resembling its present outline, a period whose prevalence of violent unrest can be gauged from the fact that of MacAlpin’s 15 immediate successors, two-thirds were assassinated or died in battle. Viking attacks remained a persistent problem, as well as disputes with rival rulers. Lothian, including the border regions north of the Tweed, was legally ceded to Scotland around 1018, and after a certain amount of dynastic manoeuvring, the Britons’ kingdom of Strathclyde was absorbed when its ruler, Malcolm’s son Duncan, acceded to the Scottish throne in 1034. Malcolm’s obituary, which referred to him as 'King of Scotia', marks the first occasion on which this title was officially used beyond the parameters of Dalriada.

The continuing dominance of Gaelic culture until the 11th century is illustrated by numerous Gaelic-derived place-names in southern Scotland. Subsequently, however, the Teutonic language – now known as Old English - spoken in the former kingdom of Northumbria (which had disintegrated into separate English and Scottish territories after 966) gained ascendancy, marking the start of Gaelic’s gradual decline into its northern and western heartlands. By the later Middle Ages, if not before, Old English had evolved into two separate languages, now called Middle English and Middle Scots.

Among other developments, the medieval period in Scotland saw the introduction of feudal relationships between landowners and tenants (albeit in distinctively Scottish form), and the evolution of legal, political and executive infrastructure, with the royal court already being described by the 13th century as a Parliament – though this should not be taken to imply any inkling of democracy. Grants of land and official posts helped secure allegiance to the king, also facilitating the emergence of several powerful aristocratic dynasties. While the country remained overwhelmingly agrarian and rural, burgh towns were incorporated as local centres for commerce and manufacturing, with some granted further royal authority to trade overseas. Church reform established a complete system of parishes and dioceses, and many major monasteries were built.

It wasn’t until 1266 that Alexander III won control of the Hebrides from Norway – such was the enduring legacy of the Viking invaders. Orkney and Shetland remained under Norwegian rule until 1470, when they were given over as part of a marriage settlement, although their relative isolation has preserved a strong Norse influence, with the Scandinavian-based Norn language only dying out in the islands in the 19th century.

After almost 200 years of relatively peaceful Anglo-Scottish co-existence, the succession crisis ensuing from Alexander III’s death in 1286 – with no less than 13 rival contestants for the crown - tempted England’s Edward I to claim feudal superiority over Scotland. Resistance to his authority led the Scots in 1295 to forge a treaty with France, the Auld Alliance, prompting Edward to lead an army north the following year. Though he proved victorious on this occasion, opposition to rule from England continued to grow, catalysed by the fabled exploits and leadership of William Wallace (immortalised by Hollywood in the movie Braveheart), whose forces defeated the English at Stirling Bridge, but were beaten in turn at Falkirk the following year.

After Wallace’s capture and execution in 1305, and in a move triggered partly by internecine Scots factionalism, Robert Bruce rose in revolt and had himself crowned Robert I. The death of Edward I in 1307, and the relative weakness of Edward II, left Bruce largely free to wage his campaign, and by 1313 he had vanquished most of his enemies at home and expelled almost the entire English presence in Scotland, barring the garrison at Stirling. Edward II’s attempt to defend this last bastion led to a decisive victory for the Scots at the battle of Bannockburn in 1314. Cross-border skirmishes continued, nonetheless, mostly in the Scots’ favour, with an assembly of Scottish nobles and clergymen drawing up the Declaration of Arbroath, a ringing affirmation of Scottish independence and loyalty to Robert I, in 1320.

Following the accession of the teenage Edward III in 1327, Scotland’s status as an independent sovereign nation was finally recognised by England in the Treaty of Northampton, signed in 1328 – although this, it need hardly be said, was certainly not the end of the matter.