Picts were living in Scotland from very early times. They may have descended from pre-Celtic aborigines, Iron Age tribes.

The Picts thrived from late antiquity to the early middle ages.

The name Pict probably comes from the Latin picti, meaning "painted," although they may have owed their blue coloring to tattoos rather than paint. Romans said Picts and Scots attacked Hadrian's Wall in 297 AD. They were a thorn in Rome's side for centuries. By the 7th century the Picts were united into one Pictland, but Christianity was encroaching. In 843 the Gaelic king Kenneth I MacAlpin became king of the Picts as well as the Scots. His realm, the Kingdom of Alba, evolved into Scotland and gradually expanded.