This is how Scotland came to be, and how the Picts disappeared.
It is no coincidence that the Picts' mysterious disappearance occurs at the same time as the creation of the kingdom of Alba. For many years Gaelic influence in Pictland had been on the rise. The Gaelic religion of Christianity had spread throughout Pictish lands and with it many Gaelic traditions. Furthermore, through a mixture of conquest and inter-marriage Gaelic or Gaelicised royalty had succeeded to the Pictish throne (a notable example of this being Kenneth MacAlpin).
You wouldn't described the German colonization of Britain and the subsequent creation of England as merely "border skirmishes"?
The Irish have been violently colonizing Wales and Scotland once but they were creating new kingdoms, not an empire.
This is how Scotland came to be, and how the Picts disappeared.
You wouldn't described the German colonization of Britain and the subsequent creation of England as merely "border skirmishes"?