Máel Coluim II, 'Canbeg'

A recent talk I gave to the Scottish Society for Northern Studies on Earl Harald of Orkney and "12th-century Scoto-Orcadian relations" has been put on YouTube. Includes a new theory about the origins of Harald's branch of the Scottish royal dynasty: www.youtube.com/watch?v=FIDR...

Day conference celebrating Glasgow's 850th anniversary. Celebrating with scholarship, and doubling as a commemoration of the work of Norman Shead. Thursday 4 September 2025 -- 10.00 am- 4:30 pm, City Chambers.

Recently received this exciting new book, I really hope the tourist shops stock it. There aren't many quality books on Gaelic Scotland suitable for this kind of audience from real experts like Coinneach Maclean : acairbooks.com/books/travel...

July 11: Feast of Drostan († early C7th), founder-abbot of the Pictish monastery of Deir (Deer). Several dedications to him in NE Scotland including Episcopal church at Old Deer. The old church at Aberdour, Aberdeenshire, claimed his relics. Also Dec 15. The C10th Book of Deer #medievalsky

Recently published, myself reviewing Ben Hudson's *Macbeth before Shakespeare*. Behind paywall, but in summary a good read that would have been a much better piece of scholarship had the author engaged significantly with research produced after the 90s: www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/...

Review of *Reigns of Edmund, Eadred and Eadwig*, eds Blanchard and Riedel, incl. my own contribution on 'Revisiting the End of Northern [English] Independence' in the latest issue of @royalstudies.bsky.social : rsj.winchester.ac.uk/articles/499...

Founders of Poland, 'Pictish Piasts'? 'The male skeletons almost all carry a single, rare group of genetic variants on the Y chromosome...today found mainly in Britain. The closest known match belongs to a Pict buried in eastern Scotland in the 5th or 6th cent.' www.independent.co.uk/news/science...

New publication from myself today: "The fame and significance of Dunkeld in the tenth and eleventh centuries" clog.glasgow.ac.uk/ojs/index.ph...

Happy St Columba's day. Today is released a new volume commissioned to mark the 1500th anniversary of the birth the saint. Features greats like Thomas Charles-Edwards, John Carey, Thomas Owen Clancy and Simon Taylor among others. I am also there. clog.glasgow.ac.uk/ojs/index.ph...

Announcing forthcoming seminar on "Scoto-Orcadian Relations in the Twelfth Century: A Re-Examination", May 29th, at 7PM / 1900 (Scotland time), myself with @northernstudies.bsky.social www.ssns.org.uk/events/ssns-...

Announcing forthcoming seminar on "Scoto-Orcadian Relations in the Twelfth Century: A Re-Examination", May 29th, at 7PM / 1900 (Scotland time), myself with @northernstudies.bsky.social www.ssns.org.uk/events/ssns-...

Our very own Alex Woolf is on In Our Time on Radio 4 this morning, talking about the Battle of Clontarf. You can listen to it on BBC Sounds here: www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

Does anyone have access/ a copy of the following: GWS Barrow, 'The origins and early history of Edinburgh and Glasgow: two Scottish cities contrasted', in Ekonomiczne i pozaekonomiczne czynniki' rozwoju miast (Akademia Ekonomiczna w Krakowie, Kraków, 1986), pp. 5-22

I recently realised that there appears to be a 6 month period in 1306 when the heir to the Scottish throne is called Neil/Niall. It would have few things to go differently, but it seems that Scotland could have had a King Neil I in the 14th century!

A thesis on Scottish heritage and tourism that should be more widely read -- even though it is a bit depressing : theses.gla.ac.uk/5178/1/2014M... Author is a blue-badge tour guide and a historian/archaeologist (and also the nephew of the great poet).

Merry St Ælla's day, the feast of Ælla the blood-eagled, martyr of York, slain by heathens #OTD in 867. My first published article, 10 years old this month, was about the life and afterlife of the king. www.academia.edu/10247408/%C3...

Happy St Cuthbert's Day!

So, so devastated to see History Scotland magazine come to an end with the Spring 2025 issue. It has been a pleasure to work on the magazine over the past 10 years, and its loss is a big blow to those working on, or interested in, Scottish History.

Mar 6: Feast of Balthere (Baldred), 8thC Northumbrian hermit who lived at Tinangehām (Tyninghame, East Lothian) and later on Bass Rock. In legend his prayers destroyed a dangerous reef.

A short piece by myself on 'Lothian and the Scottish Kings', for History Scotland: www.academia.edu/127876656/Lo...

Tree rings shed new light on Pictish power centre with incredible accuracy www.pressreader.com/uk/the-scots...

Nice to see past and present @uniofnottingham.bsky.social @uonenglish.bsky.social students editing and writing the reviews in @northernstudies.bsky.social @tcfairfax.bsky.social @cassidycroci.bsky.social @em-ehx.bsky.social

The magical burning of the Clavie in Burghead, Moray last night. Can you see the god-like face in the smoke? I think it might be Pan…

Author copies of Merovingian Worlds have arrived! www.cambridgebookshop.co.uk/products/mer... #medievalsky

Very pleased to see this now out in Early Medieval England and its Neighbours - and open access for all to download! www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Always interested in pre-modern trade, & came across the following with the late medieval O'Donnell ruler of Tyrconnell described as 'the best Lorde of fyshe in Ireland', who 'exchangeth fyshe alwaies with foreign merchants for wine' so that his nickname 'in other countries is King of the Fishe'.

Congratulations to our very own @rusticulus-reguli.bsky.social, @neilmcguigan.bsky.social and Alex Woolf, who have all published articles in the latest issue of History Scotland. Check it out at www.mymagazinesub.co.uk/history-scot...!

A hilt of a so-called ULFBERHT #sword, found in the River Rhine near Speyer. From the 9th to the 11th century a group of outstanding swords are known throughout large parts of Europe, they were produced in the Frankish Empire. Their blades were of highest quality and bear...🧵1/3 🏺 #archaeology 📷me

Onto the Midlands / 'south-humbria', including four of the fen-communities proposed by @drsueoosthuizen.bsky.social in her brilliant Anglo-Saxon Fenland (2017) As the aim of my book is to highlight lesser known 'polities', places like Mercia and East Anglia are short-served

Reminder, 'Medieval Scotlands' seminar 1630 this afternoon at the University of Edinburgh, featuring Megan Kasten on Govan & myself on the identity & demise of 'Strathclyde': llc.ed.ac.uk/celtic-scott... Hybrid event, McGuigan will be delivering his own contribution remotely now.

#OTD in 1229 Pope Gregory IX wrote to 3 Scottish prelates charging them resolve a dispute between Dercongal Abbey in Strathnith & an excommunicated knight named 'F', who had seized abbey land. Gregory notes how he had written already to Alan of Galloway for worldly assistance bringing 'F' to heal.

Giving a paper on the kingdom of 'Strathclyde' next Tuesday in Edinburgh, hybrid event. llc.ed.ac.uk/celtic-scott...

In 1611, Wm Blundell of Little Crosby Hall illicitly used land at Harkirk as a Catholic cemetery. After the first burial, many silver coins were found & they were piously melted down to make a chalice & pyx. Blundell produced illustrations of 35 coins dating the hoard to around 915 AD. #medievalsky

In a letter written to Edward I on July 24 1297, at Berwick, the English official notes that because of broken covenants 'Sir William Douglas... is in your castle of Berwick, in my keeping', but proceeds to add that 'he is still very savage & very abusive' (encore mout sauvage e mout araillez). 😠

*Blascona* is what Adam of Bremen names the *civitas* of 11th-cent. Orkney bishops. In my Malcolm book it is suggested that early episcopal organisation in Orkney survived the 'Viking Age'. Also, while doing this research I managed to get Blascona included in the computer game Thrones of Britannia.

Carving in Paisley Abbey showing St Mirin on the left being driven away from an Irish king's court. On the right, the king suffers the pain of childbirth as punishment while his courtiers look on.

Fascinating agreement between Arbroath Abbey & Fergus feuar of Tulloes & Craichie in 1329, whereby Fergus agreeing to respect the abbey's court was allowed to retain 'the court called "couthal" for the men residing within the said land, to deal with the countless acts arising among themselves only'.

Had a weird dream during a nap where Elon bought Oxford Medieval Texts and changed all the Robin Hood stories so that he was stealing from the poor on behalf of the Disney King John/wolf sheriff & no-one historian seemed to be noticing.

Glasgow in the 17th century reconstructed, from a scan of James Bell and James Paton, *Glasgow: Its Municipal Organization and Administration* (Glasgow, 1896). 'Egliscemeis' croft is interesting.

#OTD in 1093 Máel Coluim III, aka Malcolm Canmore, was killed by Normans at Alnmouth (Scoticised as *Inveralden*). In a 35-year reign after defeating Macbeth, he led at least 5 invasions of England, married into the displaced West Saxon dynasty & expanded his own dynasty's territory significantly.

Some 12th c. travel tips from Richard of Devizes' chronicle: 'Bath is buried in vapour as if at the gates of Hell...Worcester, Chester, Hereford [are filled] with desperate Welsh. York abounds in Scots, vile & faithless men. In Durham, Norwich or Lincoln...you'll never hear anyone speak French'

Reconstruction of 16th century burgh of Inverness with burgh boundaries depicted, designed for William Mackay's *Life in Inverness in the Sixteenth Century* (Aberdeen, 1911)

'A landmark achievement .... pushes the bounds of scholarship beyond what has been attempted before'. Newly published review of the Máel Coluim III book in Royal Studies Journal by Dauvit Broun: storage.googleapis.com/jnl-wu-j-rsj...

My piece 'The Complicated Legacy on an 11th-Century King' with History Scotland a few months back: www.academia.edu/111415150/M%...

Some excellent news, the Máel Coluim III book has won the 2023 Frank Watson Book Prize, 'for the best book or monograph published on Scottish History in 2021 and 2022'. More details here: www.uoguelph.ca/arts/scottis...

Excited last night to receive the proof for my forthcoming article on the 'end of northern [English] independence', re-assessing kingship & political conflict in 'middle' & northern Britain in the 940s & 950s. Publication to follow in edited volume by Mary Blanchard and Christopher Riedel.

For those for whom it may be of interest, my latest publication on Scottish Royal responses to insurrection and rebels in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, and how rituals of submission played a role in providing non-lethal results... medievalsky

Might as well make my first post here this. One of the earliest 'Scottish' (i.e. issued in the name of a Scottish royal) charters. It's an attempt by Duncan son of Malcolm III to grant Tyninghame in Lothian to Durham. He gets the consent of his brothers to make sure the grant sticks...but it doesn't