Oatcakes have been documented as existing in Caledonia (subsequently Scotland after the 9th century) since at least the time of the Roman conquest of Britain in AD 43, and likely before then.

Jean Le Bel, around AD 1357–1360 describes the Beguine nuns making "little pancakes rather like communion wafers".

[1] The Duke of Wellington's Regiment was nicknamed the Havercakes due to their recruiting sergeants bearing oat cakes on the end of their swords.

[15][16] In Scotland, oatcakes are made on a girdle (or griddle, in other forms of English) or by baking rounds of oatmeal on a tray.

According to contemporary accounts, a soldier would heat the plate over fire, moisten a bit of oatmeal and make a cake to "comfort his stomach.

[citation needed] Oatcakes similar to the Scottish variety are produced in Ireland,[23] in shared tradition with the Scots.

The oats were full of sand and salt water, but that didn't stop them from breaking out the frying pans and cooking oatcakes as their first meal in days.

One settler wrote in his journal, "This I thought was the Sweetest morsel I ever Ate in my life though the Outside was burnt black and the middle was not half done".