Scotland is full of Roman history – some people might call it their “Roman empire” (if you’re chronically online, you’ll understand the reference).
The Romans stayed in Scotland for 400 years, marking one of their longest crusades, and while they never did manage to conquer all of Scotland, their presence at the time was overwhelming.
If you do motorhome hire and travel around different parts of Scotland, you’ll see remains of their campaign everywhere, from Perthshire to Galloway, with ruins and remains telling the story of how the Romans almost conquered Scotland.
Below, we’ll go into some of Scotland’s forgotten history and tell you how they came to spend over 400 years on our beautiful lands.
The Beginning of the Romans in Scotland
Before arriving in Scotland, the Romans had already fought, tortured, and conquered much of England through brute force and numbers since AD 43. At the time, the fierce Caledonian (Scotland) tribes must have known that Roman forces were advancing north towards the border after a brutal defeat of Boudica’s rising.
Some accounts state tens of thousands of soldiers would have marched towards Scottish lands around AD 83, led by Agricola, the Roman governor of Britannia. You might call it innocent at first, but Agricola sent the troops first, actually laying eyes on Scottish lands during AD 79 after Agricola sent a fleet to survey and map Scotland’s coast.
He must have liked what he saw, and by AD 83, Roman troops had conquered southern Scotland, and northern Caledonian tribes knew a massive force was coming.
Roman Advances Through Scotland
Much of what we know about Roman advances through Scotland comes from the records of Roman historian Tacitus. He recorded that the Caledonians “turned to armed resistance on a large scale.” The northern Caledonian tribes must have been aware of the brute, undeniably vicious force of the Romans and refused to go down without a fight. Instead, they attacked multiple Roman forts and small troop movements to slow down the crusade across Scotland.
One of the most famous accounts talks of how the Caledonians almost wiped out the entire 9th legion during a surprise attack during the night, and they would have been successful in destroying the entire camp if it were not for Agricola’s cavalry that arrived to save the day.
Despite the effort, as you can imagine, the power of the Roman army didn’t match the determination of the Caledonian tribes, and by the summer of AD 84, Agricola had managed to reach deep into the northeast of Scotland.
It was at this point that one of the bloodiest battles happened somewhere in the Grampian Mountains (the exact location isn’t recorded). It’s said that around 30,000 Caledonians met a Roman army of almost half the size head-on but came with poor discipline and tactics that meant the Romans ultimately won.
After the movement through Scotland, many of the Caledonian tribes in the north were wiped out, with the remaining fleeing to the mountains or forests in an attempt to hide. The Romans controlled most of that area of Scotland, staying for hundreds of years and building famous structures that you can still see the remains of today, including Hadrian’s Wall from 122 AD. They didn’t, despite three attempts, manage to conquer all of Scotland.
How the Roman Reign Over Parts of Scotland Ended
The fact that the Roman army didn’t manage to advance and conquer all of Scotland meant that only really the north and northeast were Roman-ruled.
Demands for Roman soldiers elsewhere throughout Britannia meant that forces eventually abandoned their conquests and pulled back, especially as they were still facing resistance from natives further south in Caledonia. They primarily looked for safety and strength at Hadrian’s Wall before Antoninus Pius, Hadrian’s successor, pushed the army north again. They reached as far as Perth, building the wall we know today as the Antonine Wall.
But after growing, northern tribes were causing trouble after the death of Roman emperor Septimius Severus in 161 AD, and his son Caracalla sent a massive army to Stirling, Perth and Dundee. The issue for them was that the local tribes by then knew Roman tactics, and tribe numbers had grown, meaning the Romans couldn’t control the area, causing the army to retreat back to Hadrian’s Wall.
That wasn’t exactly the end of the Romans in Scotland, but it was the end of them trying to conquer Scotland. They stayed at Hadrian’s Wall, staying with their foot slightly involved in Caledonia until the Roman Empire crumbled in the fifth century.
A lot happened over the 400 years; most of it involved attempted campaigns across Scotland and tribal resistance from natives. Not many can say that they stopped a Roman conquest, but Scotland definitely can.