| AD | |
| 297 | The Picts are first mentioned by name as raiding northern Britain. |
| 305 | Constantius restores Hadrian’s Wall and campaigns against ‘Caledonians and other Picts’ before dying in 306. |
| 343 | Rome enters into a truce with the Picts. |
| 360-67 | Ammianus Marcellinus writes that ‘The Picti, Saxones, Scotti and Atecotti harassed the Britons continually’. |
| 368 | The Barbarian Conspiracy. A massive attack is launched by the Picts, Scots and Saxons on Roman Britain. Theodosius pursues the raiding parties by land and sea, and campaigns ‘beyond the Wall’. |
| 382-83 | Pictish raid on Britain. |
| 396 | Scots and Picts raid Britain. Stilicho drives them out. |
| c.423 | St Germanus visits Britain and takes part in the ‘Hallelujah victory’ over a joint Pictish and Saxon raid. |
| 449 | Vortigern hires Saxon mercenaries to stop Pictish raiding, who attack Orkney and campaign ‘as far as the borders of the Picts’. |
| c.450 | St Ninian begins conversion of the Southern Picts. |
| c.455 | Picts attack Roman Britain in support of the Saxon rebellion. |
| 455-60 | Coel Hen of the Britons raids Scots and Picts, setting them against each other. |
| c.460 | The king of Irish Dalriata, Fergus mor Mac Erc, arrives in Argyll and forms an alliance with the Picts. Together they defeat and kill Coel Hen at Coilsfield. |
| c.500 | Fresh immigration of Scotti from northern Ireland. |
| c.508-14 | Most likely period of the Arthurian era. The Picts are expelled from the Lowlands. |
| 537 | King of Scots, Comgall mac Fergus, killed by Picts. |
| 558 | King of Scots, Gabran mac Fergus, killed by Picts. |
| 561-70 | St Columba arrives in Scotland, begins missionary work and visits the Northern Pictish King Bridei in Inverness. |
| 580 | Aeden MacGabrain of Dalriada campaigns against the Picts of Orkney. |
| 600 | Isidore of Seville writes about Pictish tattoos. |
| c.630 | Domnall Brecc leads an army against the Irish High King, but is defeated at the battle of Moira. Last dynastic link between the Dalriadan Scots and Ireland is severed. |
| c.660 | Oswiu of Northumbria claims overlordship of Picts. |
| 664 | Synod of Whitby. Roman church takes precedence over Celtic church. |
| 670 | Oswiu dies. |
| 672 | Ecgfrith, son of Oswiu, attacks and destroys a Pictish army at the battle of Carron. |
| 674 | Ecgfrith withdraws from Alba to fight the Mercians. |
| 681 | Picts take Dunnottar back from the Northumbrians. |
| 682 | Picts retake Orkney from the Scots. |
| 683 | Picts lay waste to Scottish capital Dunnadd. |
| 685 | Picts destroy the Northumbrian army at the battle of Dunnichen. |
| 698 | A Northumbrian army invades the lands of the Picts and is destroyed. |
| Adomnan of Iona makes the ‘law of the innocents’ excluding women from military service. | |
| 711 | The Northumbrians rout the Pictish army on Plain of Manaw between the rivers Avon and Carron. |
| 713 | Picts and Northumbrians make peace. |
| 717 | Nechtan, King of Picts, brings the Pictish church into line with Rome and expels Columban monks ‘across the spine of Britain’. |
| 724-29 | Southern Pictish civil war over the crown. Oengus emerges victorious. |
| 730 | Oengus captures and drowns the ‘King of Atholl’, gaining overlordship of both the Northern and Southern Picts. |
| 736 | Oengus invades Dalriada, beheads the Scottish king, and proclaims himself the first King of Picts and Scots. |
| 738 | A war fleet of 150 Pictish ships is wrecked by storm near Ross. |
| 741 | A ‘devastating attack’ is executed on the Scots by Picts. |
| 744 | Oengus attacks and defeats the Britons of Strathclyde. |
| 750 | Oengus’ brother Talorcan is defeated by the Britons of Strathclyde at the battle of Mocetwawc. |
| 756 | Oengus makes an alliance with Eadbeorht of Northumbria and attacks Dumbarton. The Britons break the siege and seize Eadbeorht’s northern lands. |
| 761 | Oengus dies, and the Scots break free from Pictish rule. |
| 768 | King of Scots, Aed Finn, invades Alba and fights the Pictish king Ciniod in Fortriu (Fortrenn). |
| 782 | Causantin Mac Fergus of Dalriada kills Dubhtollarg, king of the Southern Picts. |
| 789 | Causantin Mac Fergus defeats Northern Picts and becomes the first Scottish king of both Scots and Picts. |
| c.780-90 | Norwegian settlers arrive in Orkney and overwhelm the local Picts. |
| Orkney becomes the staging point for Viking raids. | |
| 820 | Causantin Mac Fergus dies, and Picts re-establish their dynasty over the Scots. |
| 825 | Viking raids force the evacuation of Iona. |
| 834 | Scottish leader Alpin rebels during a Viking raid, defeats one Pictish army, but is killed by a second Pictish force. |
| 839 | Pictish King and ‘numberless others’ are killed in battle with the Vikings. |
| Alpin’s son Kenneth makes a claim for the throne, but is passed over in favour of Drust IX. | |
| 841 | Kenneth MacAlpine becomes Rex Pictorum. |
| 858 | Domnall I unites Picts and Scots under a Scottish ruling dynasty. |
Pictish serpent imagery. The meaning of such symbols is lost.
Romans riding down naked, barbaric northerners. From the Bridgeness slab of the Antonine Wall.
Pictish warriors
(a) The Three Kings from Orkney.
(b) This figure from Golspie, Sutherland, is armed with an axe and knife.
(c) Three spear-armed men from Eassie. The ‘wings’ are probably cloaks.
(d) Sampson wearing a sword and holding the jawbone of an ass, from Inchbrayock.