Submitting... 1. Scotland’s largest Pictish site Evidence of the oldest piece of cloth in Scotland, which dates from around 5,000 years ago, was found at Ness of Brodgar on Orkney. PIC: Scott Pike & Ness of Brodgar. In May, one of the largest ancient settlements ever discovered in Scotland was identified with up to 4,000 people thought to have lived or gathered in hundreds of houses on the summit of Tap O’ Noth in Aberdeenshire during the Pictish era. The hilltop is now known to have been a hive of activity around 1,700 to 1,400 years ago The breakthrough was made this year when archaeologists at Aberdeen University’s Leverhulme Comparative Kingship Project radiocarbon dated samples of organic matter earlier taken from the summit.