The Picts

The Picts were a group of Celtic peoples living in what is now Scotland until around the tenth century, when they merged with the Scottish Gaels who settled from Scotland. The amalgamation of these two Celtic peoples formed what would become the modern Scottish people.

The Picts spoke a Celtic language called Pictish, which is believed to be more closely related to British, Breton and Welsh than to Gaelic. Like the name Scoti used for the Gaels coming from Ireland, Picti was a Latin name assigned to the Picts by the Romans. It is not known what the Picts called themselves.

The Picts eventually merged their society with that of the Gaels, forming what is now Scotland.