Stone tools used by some of earliest humans in Scotland found on Skye

Stone tools used by some of the earliest humans to have lived in Scotland have been found by a team of archaeologists and scientists on the Isle of Skye.

The tools have been dated as being formed and used up to between 11,000 and 11,500 years ago during a period known as the Late Upper Palaeolithic (LUP).

They were found on sites discovered by Karen Hardy, Professor of Prehistoric Archaeology at the University of Glasgow and local archaeologist Martin Wildgoose, who died last year.

Their discovery means the west coast now represents the largest concentration of evidence for early human populations anywhere in Scotland.

It also reveals how early humans of this period ventured much further north than previously believed.

Professor Hardy said: “As they journeyed northwards, most likely following animal herds, they eventually reached Scotland, where the western landscape was dramatically changing as glaciers melted and the land rebounded as it recovered from the weight of the ice.

“A good example of the volatility they would have encountered can be found in Glen Roy, where the world-famous Parallel Roads provide physical testament to the huge landscape changes and cataclysmic floods that they would have encountered, as they travelled across Scotland.”

The finds were announced in a paper published in The Journal of Quaternary Science.