Hunters and gatherers arrived in prehistoric Scotland around 10,000BC.

The best-preserved of what their earliest descendants left behind lies on Scotland's more remote islands, particularly Orkney where you can visit the 5000-year-old Neolithic village of Skara Brae and Maeshowe, a burial cairn from the same era. Far more accessible for most visitors though is the rock art at Ben Lawers in Perthshire.

A little later, the Beaker People brought the Bronze Age (c. 3200–800 BC) to Scotland and many Stone circles. This was the era when settlement started at Jarlshof, in Shetland and when the tombs at Clava Cairns were built. There are many more stone circles at, Kilmartin Glen in Argyll. But arguably the most impressive of all is Callanish on the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Isles.