#MosaicMonday 1963, a blacksmith discovered a massive, nearly complete #Roman #mosaic at Hinton St Mary in #Dorset. It was considered one of a kind, with a pristine portrait of #Jesus Christ at its center (Constantine has also been suggested). #Archaeology #art #History

Built in 1582 and burned 65 years later, Gylen Castle on Cearara (Kerrera) seems to have had a relatively short life, but is there more to its history? 🏰 In 2002, archaeological surveys revealed below-ground structures which may pre-date this picturesque ruin: www.digitscotland.com/top-archaeol...

A Selkie doing. What Selkies do. At Katie's Pow today. #Papay #selkie #Orkney

Tired of the old "elf on a shelf" nonsense? Canada GOTCHU.

The old ones are the good ones. Part of the extraordinary Ring of Brodgar on Orkney. #StandingStonesSunday 🏺 #WorldHeritage

#PhD writing finished for the day. Now for a glass of wine and the original and best Death on the Nile. Oh, to have been a fly on the wall with Bette Davies and Maggie Smith! #PhDLife #Archaeology #Egypt

The Orkney Islander Magazine is now out. @thinkuhi.bsky.social UHI Institute for Northern Studies has a full page article on page 75 talking about the John Gow Heritage Trail. Download full magazine orkneyislander.co.uk

#RomanSiteSaturday Hadrian's Wall at Steel Rigg, Milecastle 39, AKA Sycamore Gap. This stretch of wall is part of the Northumberland #NationalPark and close to Housesteads #Roman #Fort 📸 mine

Early morning #Dog walk but no sign of #StormDave in East #Sutherland #Scotland yet

"Experimental Archaeology: Making, Understanding, Story-telling" (edited by Christina Souyoudzoglou-Haywood, Aidan O'Sullivan, 2019) www.archaeopress.com/Archaeopress...

A medieval moated enclosure which is at least 500 years old has recently been identified by geophysical survey in the Scottish Borders and experts need your help to excavate the interior 🔍 Register for the free dig starting on 11 May—no experience required: www.digitscotland.com/events/excav...

#FindsFriday The Bluebell Wood cup and ring stone. Found in woods near Langley House #Glasgow. The motifs on this sandstone boulder are thought to date to the #BronzeAge and may represent astronomical phenomena. On display at Kelvingrove Museum. 📸 mine

Undergraduate students Milly Wilson and Yazzy Qaqundah have been analysing the ceramic and iron assemblages from the Skaill farm excavation, Rousay.

We have plenty of exciting events coming up this spring and summer! 🌻 Whether you're interested in rock art, the Iron Age and Roman period or the archaeology of the Clyde Valley region, there's something for everyone. You can read all our latest updates in our April newsletter: bit.ly/4stEELT

Tomorrow (Friday 3 April) sees the return of our popular historic cathedral graveyard tours. They run every Monday and Friday, starting at 2pm and lasting 1 hour. The tours cost £10pp and there is no need to book - just meet the guide inside the cathedral at the custodian's office.

Professor Alex Sanmark from the UHI Institute for Northern Studies & Viking burial expert Caroline Patterson recently travelled to the Scottish island of Arran as part of the UHI Tourism Knowledge Exchange Initiative, connecting research with businesses & communities. tinyurl.com/3y4n8wm2

Hugely excited and proud to say the Rhynie monograph is now published! This is one of the most important sites and landscapes ever discovered for understanding the Picts and the development of the early Pictish kingdoms #careergoalunlocked! #Pictsarethebest! books.socantscot.org/digital-book...

Date for the diary....History Scotland Magazine online webinar 'The Hidden Lives of Viking Women' by UHI Institute for Northern Studies Professor Alexandra Sanmark. ➕ Online event ➕ Wednesday 30/09/26 18.30 - 20.00 UK Time. ➕ Cost £10 ➕ Obtain tickets through Eventbrite link tinyurl.com/5exnc6n5

This is such good news, I have been worried about them! #Orkney voles are unique, arriving on the islands during the #Neolithic they have a lot to tell us about human and species migration #Zooarchaeology BBC News - Stoat cull credited with rise in Orkney vole activity www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Now that we're back in British Summer Time (although a glance out the window would cast doubt on that) a reminder of the planned excavation work for the summer of 2026.

mythical creature #Cat #Caturday

One of the things I absolutely love about buying second-hand #books, is not only does it give them a new lease of life... but you never know what you might find in the pages! Randomly I used to live and work near Chalfield Manor! No writing on the postcards unfortunately. ##PhDLife #RedDeer

#StandingStoneSunday Stood at Cwrt Dafydd farm, south of Margam, where they were found reused to form a footbridge across a stream. They are known as 'cart-wheel' crosses, and so named from the radial form of the cross head, like the wheels of a cart. 10thC. 📸My own #History

#StandingStoneSunday The Stones of Stenness #Orkney taken in 2022 on a stormy winter's day. Originally 12 stones stood here but only 4 remain. The circle is located on the edge of the isthmus between Harray and Stenness lochs by the #Neolithic village of Barnhouse. #OlderThanStonehenge 📸 mine

Today I've been making and decorating this replica Bronze Age beaker from Seahouses in Northumberland. The original is in the collection of the Great North Museum in Newcastle. It's one of the pots that inspired me to do what I do. 🏺 #Archaeology #Pottery potted-history.co.uk

Fantastic and insightful talk by Dr Ian McLellan on #reddeer hunting and management in the Breadalbane estate #Scotland. Definitely worth a watch 😍🦌

Does #RomanSiteSaturday still count if the site is in #Rome? Or is it just an excuse for me to show off my #holiday snaps 😉 The Colosseum and Arch of Constantine taken in January 2026 📸 mine!

Around 1,900 years ago, Trimontium in the Borders was Scotland's largest Roman fort and settlement ⚔️ "Reflect on the traces of those who once walked these lands, whose stories linger quietly beneath the surface" at @trimontiumtrust.bsky.social's new exhibition: www.digitscotland.com/events/lands...

#FindsFriday The pectoral cross from the #Viking #Galloway #Hoard found in 2014 and dated to AD900. This Christian cross is possibly #Pictish. It is silver with inlaid gold in the #Cornish Trewhiddle style. The animals represent 3 of the 4 Evangelists. 📸 mine

Fascinating research into the mapping of the North of #Scotland in particular #Orkney and it's significance in #Medieval Europe.

'We bought a tomb' sounds like the start of a horror film, but it's actually the start of a great day out! Orkney's famous Tomb of the Eagles is now wholly community owned, and in one week we're re-opening for our first big season since COVID. Wednesday 1 April at 10am. Not an April Fool's joke 🏺💀🎉

A quick shout out for The Islands Book Trust Conference in the Faroes 14th -15th April 2026. The event is titled “The Faroes and Hebrides: Population and Cultural Change in the Early Viking Period” tinyurl.com/5n97msxa

Don’t miss out — there’s still time to register! The deadline for the UHI Institute for Northern Studies 7th International St Magnus Conference is April 6th. Speakers include the Makar, Professor Peter MacKay, and Charlotte Hedenstierna-Jonson from Uppsala University. tinyurl.com/23554jxd

Just a quick reminder....Our free UHI Public Seminar Series lecture this 7.00pm Thursday 26th March - Early Modern Hunting in a Highland Context: Conclusions from a Study of the Breadalbane Estates by Iain LacLellan. Pic @orkat3.bsky.social tinyurl.com/yudep5b2

#TombTuesday Midhowe chambered Cairn, Rousay. The largest tomb in #Orkney. 32.5m long, 23m wide, it has 12 chambers, 8 of which held the remains of 25 people, many had been placed on benches, 9 in a crouched position. #Neolithic #Archaeology 📸 mine

Really enjoyed this 2025 article on The ‘king’ of Newgrange? A critical analysis of a Neolithic petrous fragment from the passage tomb chamber | Antiquity | Cambridge Core cambridge.org/core/journal... and how it draws together many strands to come to a fascinating conclusion and more questions

#NationalPuppyDay tajen in August 2024. These monsters will be 2 this year and are still happy waggy pups... just much bigger!

This mosaic depicts snails in a basket (presumably waiting to be cooked and eaten). This may explain why one has already escaped and another is making a break for it. 🕰️4th century AD 🏛️📷Basilica di Santa Maria Assunta, Aquileia #MosaicMonday

Black dog with a shiny coat plus mood lighting equals a weird but lovely trick of the light ❤️🖤 #Dogs #heart @weratedogs.com

In #Orkney, rain means rainbows. Skara Brae today, with a little shadow at the bottom that is me taking the photo 🌈🏺

#StandingStoneSunday They aren't many standing stones in #Shetland, but Staneydale Temple (not a temple) has clusters of them close by, some appear to be laid out in a circular pattern, but are not stone circles and are only 3-4ft in height. #Neolithic #BronzeAge

🔥 Whale Shark gliding through Bioluminescent Algae looks like its floating through space. By Mike Nulty

#FromTheVault: #RomanBaths The Roman Baths are well preserved thermal pools. A temple was constructed on the site between 60 and 70 AD in the first few decades of Roman Britain. This image was captured in 2010 during my third trip to #England in #Bath.

Weekend watching sorted 🍿 The de Cardi Lecture is now live on YouTube. Dr Anwen Cooper takes us into the world of prehistoric Britain, exploring how past relationships with the natural world can help shape how we think about nature recovery today. 👉

#WorldPoetryDay #Orkney poet George MacKay Brown's The Beachcomber is one of my favourites. If you wander to the castle end of Rose St #Edinburgh, the windows of the old BT building contain each day of the week from his poem and they are stunningly beautiful

Take a few minutes to read UHI Institute for Northern Studies PhD candidate Shanna Bryman's story as she discusses her remarkable journey from Arizona to Scotland & the University of the Highlands and Islands @thinkuhi.bsky.social #research #PhD institutefornorthernstudies.com/2026/03/19/e...

'The females are the chief assistants in cultivating the farms.' theorkneynews.scot/2026/03/20/t...

Best wishes to the Association of Young Irish Archaeologists 2026 conference in Queens University Belfast this weekend and good luck to the everyone from @ucdarchaeology.bsky.social presenting papers and posters. It promises to be a great weekend. www.instagram.com/p/DU-e_npCJrA/

Archaeological excavations in Somerset have revealed evidence of a nearly 6000-year-old wooden trackway, which would have been used by our early Neolithic ancestors to cross the area’s watery marshes. www.bajr.org/a-6000-year-...

The Wandsworth Shield - an Iron Age shield dating to the 2nd century BC. It was found while dredging the River Thames at Wandsworth in South London during the first half of the 19th century. Now part of the collections at the British Museum. 📸 My own. #FindsFriday #IronAge