Northwest Europe, Britain: 05A SCOTLAND (Caledonia): Palaeolithic Period (14-11.7 kya)

Palaeolithic Period (14-11.7 kya) 

The adverse climate conditions in the north meant that human settlement in Scotland began much later than in southern Europe where the weather was less severe. So far the earliest evidence of humans in Scotland is from Howburn Farm, Lanarkshire, near Biggar, east of the River Clyde and southwest of Edinburgh, where field-walkers discovered more than 5000 flint tools dating to 14 kya.

At Islay, the southernmost island of the Inner Hebrides, a chain of islands off the west coast of Scotland, a flint arrowhead found in a field near Bridgend, Argyllshire, dates from 12.8 kya. Stone tools of the Ahrensburg culture found at Rubha Port an t-Seilich near Port Askaig were probably dropped by hunters travelling round the coast in boats.