Cináed mac Ailpín (after 800 – 13 February 858) (Anglicised Kenneth MacAlpin) was king of the Picts and, according to national myth, first king of Scots. Cináed's undisputed legacy was to produce a dynasty of rulers who claimed descent from him. Even though he cannot be regarded as the father of Scotland, he was the founder of the dynasty which ruled that country for much of the medieval period.

Kenneth I, First King of the united Scots
also called Kenneth Macalpin
d. c. 858,, Forteviot, Scot. First king of the united Scots of Dalriada and the Picts and so of Scotland north of a line between the Forth and Clyde rivers.
Of his father, Alpin, little is known, though tradition credits him with a signal victory over the Picts by whom he was killed three months later (c. 834). Kenneth succeeded him in Dalriada and ruled in Pictavia also, ruling for 16 years. The period is obscure. The gradual union of the two kingdoms from 843 doubtless owes much to intermarriage. By the Pictish marriage custom, inheritance passed through the female. Nevertheless, Kenneth probably made some conquests among the eastern Picts and possibly invaded Lothian and burned Dunbar and Melrose. After attacks on Iona by Vikings he removed relics of St. Columba, probably in 849 or 850, to Dunkeld, which became the headquarters of the Scottish Columban church. He died at Forteviot, not far from Scone in Pictish territory, and was buried on the island of Iona.

(c.810-c.859)
  
Kenneth MacAlpin aka Kenneth I, King of Alba
In c. 841 AD, a man came to power in Dalriada who would change the face of politics in Scotland forever. He was born Ciniod Mac Alpin, but later took the Christian name of Kenneth. In c. 841, he became Kenneth I, King of Alba.
Kenneth MacAlpin was born around the year 810 AD. His father, Alpin Mac Eochaid, was king of Scots in name only, as at that time Dalriada was ruled by the Picts. Kenneth's mother is said to have been either a daughter of Achalas, King of Argyllshire or a princess of the royal lines of the Picts. In either case, he was born into a strong royal bloodline. On his father's side he could lay claim as rightful heir to the throne of Dalriada and his mother's bloodline gave him the right to petition for the throne of Caledonia.
Kenneth grew up under the heel of a Pictish rule and apparently disliked it immensely. As a Scot of Irish descent, he naturally resented Caledonian control of Dalriada and their pre-emptive usurping of his fathers' throne. Meanwhile, his father Alpin took advantage of the Viking raids of the early 830's to lead a revolt against the Caledonians. Alpin died in battle against the Picts, which probably did little to change his son's attitude towards their rule.
The Picts victory over Kenneth MacAlpin's father only earned them the right to face the Vikings in battle. In their weakened state, the Picts were soundly defeated and not only lost their King, Eogan, but his brother and successor as well. After this battle, the warrior and royal class of the Picts was so severely depleted that they never again offered any serious threat to Viking or Scot for control of their country. Thus, a very jaded Kenneth took the reigns of a now independent Dalriada in approximately 841 AD.
Through Kenneth's ample ancestry he had the right to become a claimant to the Caledonian throne. Through a rumored marriage to the daughter of Constantine he increased his standing, but his petition was not accepted during the next four ascensions of the Caledonian Crown. When Drust, reigned as the last Pictish King of Caledonia, it is said that Kenneth planned and executed an episode that is now known as 'MacAlpins treason'.
During the reign of Drust, Caledonian rule was still greatly weakened. Less than eight years had passed since the disastrous defeat by the Vikings in c. 839. The country was largely occupied by Viking forces and could not mount any serious challenge to their forced authority. It was then, in c. 847 AD, that Kenneth invited the seven remaining Moramers (Earls) of Caledonia to his court to discuss his claim to the throne.
A great banquet was held, and the guests were plied with food and wine. Late in the evening, after the guests - including Drust the King - were sufficiently inebriated, they were attacked and slaughtered by Kenneth's men. Thus Kenneth cleared the way for his claim to the throne of Caledonia and became King of Scots and Picts. He ruled from c. 841-859 as King of Alba, the New Kingdom created by the combination of the two previous nations. He moved the capital from Dunndald to Scone, and in the process transferred the Stone of Destiny to its new home. After many years, this stone became known as the Stone of Scone, in reference to its new location in Scone.
Upon Kenneth's death in c. 859, his brother Donald became King and ruled as a member of the House of Alpin. As for Kenneth himself, he was rumored to be a man of astuteness, while his method of uniting the two kingdoms belies this fact and brings the term ruthless to mind. Either way, he successfully united the rule of the two Kingdoms permanently. As for the country of Caledonia itself, its territory was divided between the Vikings and the Scots and later became known as a part of Scotland itself.