This is a painstaking survey of every Scottish battle from Mons Graupius AD 84 to Culloden 1746. Scotland has been formed by war to a greater extent than almost any other nation—war against the Romans, the Vikings, one another and, throughout the medieval and early modern eras, with England. Many of Scotland's battlefields have already been covered by modern developments, many more are at risk, often because their existence, let alone significance, is known to so few. If battles are "no more than the punctuation marks of history" it is not enough to know where these punctuation marks occurred, it is important to understand why.

This is a painstaking survey of every Scottish battle from Mons Graupius AD 84 to Culloden 1746. Scotland has been formed by war to a greater extent than almost any other nation—war against the Romans, the Vikings, one another and, throughout the medieval and early modern eras, with England. Many of Scotland's battlefields have already been covered by modern developments, many more are at risk, often because their existence, let alone significance, is known to so few. If battles are "no more than the punctuation marks of history" it is not enough to know where these punctuation marks occurred, it is important to understand why.