Caledonia

Caledonia, the name applied by the Romans to the country north of the Wall of Antoninus, which ran between the Firths of Forth and Clyde. First occurring in Lucan (1st century A.D.), it was probably, like Britannia, a Latin coinage from a native name—Calido. The 'Caledonian Forest' (Lat. Caledonius Saltus or Silva Caledonia; Welsh Coed Celyddon; the Kaledonios Drumos of Ptolemy) was a thick wood of birch and hazel extending from the west of the district of Menteith to Dunkeld (Gaelic Duncelden or Dunchallann, 'town or stronghold of the Caledonians'). By Scott and others the name Caledonia has been poetically applied to the whole of Scotland. See Rhys's Celtic Britain (2d. ed. 1884), and article SCOTLAND.