Fact of the day, did you know that over the last century historians have uncovered evidence that the Roman Empire once sponsored the foundation of a colonial settlement in New England? See the dedicated Wikipedia article for the detail: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Eng...

Happy St Cuthbert's Day. Annual excuse to repost article on 'Cuthbert’s relics and the origins of the diocese of Durham', *Anglo-Saxon England* (2021). Warning: contains some dastardly revisionism about Cuthbert's history (at Chester-le-Street) & the 'Viking Age' Northumbrian church cup.org/4ssGyNq

Thurs 26 March, Prof. Fiona Edmonds will deliver the 2026 John Bannerman Memorial Lecture (in-person and online), on a topic close to Bannerman's own work: 'Dál Riata and Northumbria, c. 700‒1000: Connections and comparisons'. Tuilleadh fiosrachaidh | More info 👇 hca.ed.ac.uk/john-bannerm...

Mar 6: Feast of Balthere (Baldred) (†756). Anchorite from Lindisfarne linked with Lothian sites Aldham (Auldhame), whose monastic community he may have founded; the Bass Rock, his likely retreat; and Tinangeham (Tyninghame), whose religious centre eclipsed Aldham by mid-10thC. #medievalsky

Very pleased to receive author’s copies of Offa, King of the Mercians from @yalebooks.bsky.social today. Looking superb, and an excellent publishing experience!

For those who don't have the time to read this piece, it includes a new theory about the origins of Earl Harald & the politics of northern Scotland in the later 12th cent. See illustration (by Tom) for modified/suggested genealogical relations between Harald & other members of the Scottish dynasty.

Details of Steve Boardman's forthcoming *The First Stewart Dynasty: Scotland, 1371–1488*, the long awaited Late Middle Ages volume in the New Edinburgh History of Scotland. Discount code from EUP on flyer.

See link for detail on the recently published Historical Map of Perth. This & detail about a forthcoming equivalent for St Andrews (see flyer) can be acquired via the website of the Historic Towns Trust: www.historictownstrust.uk

New publication from myself, 'Haraldr Maddaðarson and Scoto-Orcadian Politics before 1222': www.academia.edu/149771345/Ha...

The Church of Scotland has confirmed that the Old Kilpatrick Parish Church, which sits on the northern bank of the Clyde near the Erskine Bridge, is set to close later this year after 214 years of service to its local community. Read the story here 👇 www.clydebankpost.co.uk/news/2575942...

The wonderful @caitlinrgreen.bsky.social has a hugely interesting new article just out in Early Medieval England & its Neighbours, all about Alfred the Great's embassy to India - free to read here #India #AlfredtheGreat #medieval www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Demons & the undead reaching up from Hell to grasp the world? Perhaps a metaphor of some kind, or perhaps I've been watching too many horror films #Infantino #PeacePrize #FootballUnitesTheWorld

2025 Frank Watson Book Prize in Scottish History! Catriona M.M. Macdonald, The Caledoniad: The Making of Scottish History. Edinburgh: John Donald, an imprint of Birlinn Ltd., 2024. ISBN: 9780859767200. Congratulations, Dr. Macdonald! 🏆🎉 Read the jury's citation: www.uoguelph.ca/arts/scottis...

The Máel Coluim III book, brand new in hardback, is available for just £30 (down from £70-100) Abebooks : www.abebooks.co.uk/servlet/Book...

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.