You do know that a majority of Scotland was never Gaelic speaking, right? Manx and Kernewek are both dead languages to all intents and purposes, which is a pity, obviously. Elsewhere only shrinking minorities speak the languages in question, which is also a shame, but is also very much the reality.
Argh. I'll have to stop you there on the first one (which falls into one of those answers that should be true but isn't) At the Act of Union the population was about 1,000,000. It is estimated that it stood at around 800,000 in the very early 1600's. The population of Scotland, in terms of distribution at this time was more heavily concentrated in the Highlands and islands. Even as late as the 1881 Census, Gaelic Scotland stretched as far south as Loch Tay and the banks of Loch Lomond (though by this point was in serious decline)
Strictly speaking this area at the time of James VI and before contained the majority of Scotland's population. Given that 'Germanic' speaking Scotland was speaking a variety of associated but different languages (Scots, Doric, Norn, Lallans, Anglis etc) that had not yet been standardised, Gaelic was at the very least was the largest in terms of languages spoken by plurality. Curiously it's strength was probably greater from the early 1300's to the early 1600's than it was immediately prior (post 1000) due to the higher estimated mortality rates from the plague in the central lowlands.
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