There may be a Scottish identity, which is the heritage of the Scottish past, but there is no Scottish people in a racial sense. Early medieval Scotland was a peculiar amalgam of Picts, Irish Celts, Vikings, Britons, Angles, Normans and Flemings. In the course of hundreds of years these people and tribes became fused into a nation state, though with at least three strong regional identities, that of the highlands, of the lowlands and of the northern isles. Then industrialisation and a quarter of a million of union with the rest of Britain had its effect. Many Scots today are descended from very recent immigrants. About one in six are catholics, and most of these are descended from the Irish peasantry of Victoria’s reign.