Editing Scotland (section)

===Prehistory===
The earliest known evidence of human presence in Scotland is [[Hamburgian culture]] stone tools produced by late [[Upper Paleolithic]] [[Hunter-gatherer|hunter gatherers]] who arrived in Scotland during the [[Bølling–Allerød Interstadial]] warm period at the end of the [[last ice age]], around 14,500 to 14,000 years ago,  shortly following the retreat of the ice sheet that had previously covered Scotland.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Hardy |first=Karen |last2=Barlow |first2=Natasha L.M. |last3=Taylor |first3=Edward |last4=Bradley |first4=Sarah L. |last5=McCarthy |first5=John |last6=Rush |first6=Graham |date=2025-04-23 |title=At the far end of everything: A likely Ahrensburgian presence in the far north of the Isle of Skye, Scotland |url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/jqs.3718 |journal=Journal of Quaternary Science |language=en |doi=10.1002/jqs.3718 |issn=0267-8179|doi-access=free }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Ballin |first=Torben Bjarke |url=https://www.archaeopress.com/Archaeopress/Products/9781784919016 |title=Reindeer hunters at Howburn Farm, South Lanarkshire: a late Hamburgian settlement in Southern Scotland - its lithic artefacts and natural environment |last2=Tipping |first2=Richard M. |date=2018 |publisher=Archaeopress Publishing Ltd |isbn=978-1-78491-902-3 |location=Summertown, Oxford}}</ref> [[Early European Farmers|Neolithic farmers]] arrived in Scotland around 6000 years ago.<ref>Rowley-Conwy, P., Gron, K.J., Bishop, R.R. et al. (5 more authors) (2020) [https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/id/eprint/157765/3/Rowley%20Conwey%20et%20al_Accepted_Earliest%20farming%20Britain%20ch%2019.pdf The earliest farming in Britain : towards a new synthesis]. In: Gron, K.J., Sorensen, L. and RowleyConwy, P., (eds.) Farmers at the Frontier: A Pan European Perspective on Neolithisation. Oxbow Books , Oxford, UK , pp. 401-424. {{ISBN|9781789251401}}</ref> The well-preserved village of [[Skara Brae]] on the mainland of [[Orkney]] dates from this period. Neolithic habitation, burial, and ritual sites are particularly common and well preserved in the [[Northern Isles]] and [[Western Isles]], where a lack of trees led to most structures being built of local stone.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Pryor |first=Francis |title=Britain BC |publisher=HarperPerennial |year=2003 |isbn=978-0-00-712693-4 |location=London |pages=98–104 & 246–250 |author-link=Francis Pryor}}</ref> Evidence of sophisticated pre-Christian belief systems is demonstrated by sites such as the [[Callanish Stones]] on [[Isle of Lewis|Lewis]] and the [[Maes Howe]] on [[Orkney]], which were built in the third millennium BC.<ref name="short" />{{Rp|38}}