BC

350,000.000 - 400,000,000 Arbroath's 'Upper & Lower red sandstone' are formed, possibly around the equator. 425-250,000,000 The meeting of 3 continental plates, Baltica, Laurentia (including what is now Scotland & NW Ireland), and Avalonia (including what will become England & Wales), and previously separated by the 'Iapetus Ocean', come together, forming Laurasia. The 'collision line', with Avalonia being driven at a shallow angle beneath Laurentia, is known as the Iapetus Suture, which in modern Britain is north of Hadrian's Wall, close to the 21st century Scottish/English border. The pressure creates the 'Scottish' west highlands & grampian mountains, pushing them at least as high as today's modern Alps. So Scotland is therefore not only culturally different from England, but geologically too - in the most ancient & dramatic way imaginable ! 50,000,000 Laurasia begins to break up, Laurentia (North America & Greenland) receding & the North Atlantic being formed. 14,000 The last ice sheet begins to retreat westwards from it's limit east off Fife Ness. The sea level is as much as 45 metres higher than now. 12500 End of the last ice age. 11000 The sea reaches inland over low lying areas as far as today's Aberfoyle. 8500 The earliest evidence of mesolithic human settlement in what will become Scotland. 8000 The sea recedes to today's level or less. 6000 The land bridge to the rest of 'Europe' is submerged, forming a group of islands later known as the British Isles. 3500 Sea level rises to 10 metres higher than today's, before again falling. Much of Scotland's coast in the 21st century, Arbroath's included, will show evidence of earlier raised shorelines - take a walk along the top of Victoria Park ! 2500 Round houses date from around this time. Right is possible evidence of one at Chapelton. 2000 - 600 Dickmontlaw cairn is a burial site from this period - perhaps around 1,000 B.C. 1200 The climate has become colder & wetter.

Mesolithic = 7.000-3,500 BC Neolithic = 3,500-2,000 BC Bronze Age = 2,000-600 BC Iron Age = from 600 BC

Dickmontlaw

Chapelton

BC