Life in iron age Scotland

The iron age in the British Isles ran from about 800 BCE and ended in England in 43 AD when the Romans invaded, bringing with them their knowledge of how to make steel. Scotland was an exception though as the mighty Romans who conquered dozens of countries and enslaved millions weren’t able to break through into the highlands of Scotland. The resistance the Scots put up saved their country from being invaded, but it also stopped the Romans from sharing their technology of how to make steel, because of this, the iron age in Scotland lasted up until around 400 AD.

(The site of Dunadd hill fort, sadly little more remains than a few foundation lines and defensive mounds)

During the iron age, Scotland was actually known as a country called Caledonia, and it wasn’t for several hundred years after the iron age ended that the name changed. Life during this period would have been harder than anywhere in the British Isles, mostly due to the weather and threat of invasion. Scotland also doesn’t have the best farmland and the cold and rain makes it difficult to produce crops as easily as somewhere like southern England.

What exactly was the Scottish Iron Age?

The iron age refers to a period in history when someone worked out how to smelt iron and create stronger tools. This may not sound as significant as it is but before this era, the strongest metal available was bronze, which isn’t strong enough to make effective tools and farming equipment. The introduction of iron allowed people to create the plow, with nothing they had before being strong enough to be dragged through the earth and stay in one piece. The plow allowed for the mass production of grain and vegetables and was necessary to sustain population growth. Iron also allowed for much stronger axes and saws which meant homes could be built faster and larger structures were now possible.

(The remains of an Iron age site located on Orkney, believed to be a Broch with a small surrounding village)

What were iron-age Scottish homes like?

They shared the standard roundhouse design that can be seen across the entire British Isles, but one thing that’s more common here is for the walls to be made of stacked stone instead of daub, a putty-like material that’s made of equal parts of soil, clay, animal manure and something to bind it together like reeds or hay. The thick stone walls were presumably to provide more protection against the weather, but also because Scotland isn’t exactly short of mountainous terrain where stone would be abundant and easy to collect.

(The ruins of a wheelhouse located at the base of a Broch. How the roof would have looked and what the rooms were used for is anyone’s guess)

The Broch

An iron-age building that’s unique to Scotland is the Broch, which is a hollow tower thought to be used for defensive purposes. Some of these were built without mortar and had thick stone walls that were held together with clay, and normally consisted of two walls being built within each other and the gap in between was then filled with soil and rocks, though some had stairs built in between the walls. The first Brochs appeared as early as 300 BCE, but they aren’t mentioned in historical texts until much later, and the last ones are believed to have been built by 200 AD, after which palisades and hill forts became a more effective form of defense.

(The ruins of Dun Carloway Broch. On this tower, the gap in between the walls is too small for stairs and was most likely filled with earth for strength, but other surviving Brochs used the gap to place stairs to upper levels)

There are 571 recognized Broch sites in Scotland, most of which are heavily ruined or nothing more than foundations. Many intact Brochs still remain, with the tallest of which standing at 15 meters, and often including small villages built within the walls surrounding their bases. Records on who built them and how exactly they were used don’t seem to exist but from all the information gathered by researchers, they appear to be an early iron-age equivalent of a castle.

What did they eat in Iron-age Scotland?

There were, and still are to an extent, two major problems when it comes to food production in Scotland. The first is the weather, which can be very cold and wet, with a higher level of rainfall than the other three countries in the British Isles. This can make it very difficult to find an area to mass-produce crops like grain and increases the chances of a crop getting wiped out from an extremely cold or wet period. The second problem is the mountainous terrain which has made huge areas of the country too rocky or unable to hold enough water to successfully grow things.

(A large iron-age cooking pot recovered from a dig site. Due to their lack of record keeping, their cooking methods and recipes will forever remain unknown)

The problems in crop production led to the land being used to raise livestock, primarily cows, sheep, and pigs. Because huge areas of land weren’t ideal for large settlements, and with the population being much lower during the iron age, hunting was still an option and huge herds of deer roamed the countryside, trying to avoid the hunters sent out to find them. Fishing and gathering were one of the most reliable food sources, with coastal gathering being a particular favorite. Huge piles of shells have been discovered all around the coast, which contain all kinds of shellfish and even the bones of seals, but nothing is more prominent in the mounds that winkles and limpets. Crops were produced, but there was a small selection to choose from because the weather wouldn’t allow a vast range. Vegetables such as cabbage, peas, and beans were popular, and grains like barley and oats took preference over wheat which needed more sun.

(an example of an iron age plow. This small invention changed farming forever and allowed for the mass production of farmed crops for the first time)

Law and Money in iron age Scotland

There was no universally recognized form of coin in the British Isles during the iron age, and instead, trade was the only way to go. Certain metals like gold and silver were valuable everywhere but prices would change depending on who you asked, and countrywide prices would vary from clan to clan.

(Whoever had the biggest army was normally in charge, but conflicts over land were much less common)

The population of England passed 1 million for the first time during the iron age, and it’s believed Scotland achieved this 200 to 300 years after England because of its smaller starting population. Due to the small number of people in such a big country, competition for land wasn’t very common, and so the country was divided up into individual groups who all came up with their own laws. During the attempted Roman invasion of Scotland, numerous clans joined forces to help fight them off, but there doesn’t seem to be a single written record of this, so we will never know the arrangements they made or how they decided who would be in charge.