Rome Never Conquered All the British Isles

Rome never conquered the entire British Isles. The Roman occupation was partial, temporary, and ultimately withdrawn.

What Rome Conquered

• AD 43: Claudius invades — begins conquest of Britannia (England + Wales).
• By ~AD 80: Control established over most of England and Wales — cities (Londinium, Eboracum, Verulamium), roads, forts, villas.
• Hadrian's Wall (122 AD): Northern frontier (Tyne–Solway). "Edge of empire."
• Antonine Wall (142 AD): Brief push to Forth–Clyde — abandoned by 162 AD.

What Rome Never Conquered

• Scotland (Caledonia): Picts, Caledonians resisted. Romans campaigned (Agricola, Severus) but never held territory north of Hadrian's Wall permanently.
• Ireland (Hibernia): Never invaded. Trade, raids, cultural contact only. Ptolemy mapped it; Agricola considered it (one legion + auxiliaries) but didn't go.
• Isle of Man, Hebrides, Orkney, Shetland: Beyond Roman reach.

The End

• AD 410: Honorius tells British cities "look to your own defenses." Roman administration, army, coinage collapse.
• Sub-Roman Britain → Anglo-Saxon kingdoms (England) + Celtic kingdoms (Wales, Cornwall, Strathclyde) + Pictish/Gaelic (Scotland) + Irish (Ireland).

Legacy

Roman roads, walls, baths, cities, Christianity, Latin loanwords, administrative concepts — but only in the conquered south and east. The "British Isles" as a whole never fell under the eagle.