The Society is happy to announce Amanda Boeing as the winner of the 2025 Magnusson Prize! She received the award for her insightful comparative essay on the Battle of Brunanburh poem and Egill Skalla-Grímsson's Höfuðlausn. Many congratulations to Amanda!

There are still a few tickets left for our Day Conference in Arbroath this Saturday! Speakers include John Borland (@pictishartssociety.bsky.social), Nick Evans (@uniofaberdeen.bsky.social), and Alexandra Sanmark (@insuhi.bsky.social)! Full details below!

Very happy to have been able to support the publication of this volume for Anna, and many congratulations to the editor and contributors!

For those who missed it yesterday - SSNS's new volume, 'Common Ground in Scottish Archaeology' is available now! 🚨📚 You can get it at ssns.org.uk for only £17.95 (and with free shipping) using our discount code 'ritchie10'.

For those who missed it yesterday - SSNS's new volume, 'Common Ground in Scottish Archaeology' is available now! 🚨📚 You can get it at ssns.org.uk for only £17.95 (and with free shipping) using our discount code 'ritchie10'.

OUT NOW! 📚 SSNS is proud to present its new edited volume, 'Common Ground in Scottish Archaeology' (ed. Kelly Kilpatrick), which honours the work of Dr Anna Ritchie, esteemed archaeologist, author, and lifelong advocate of Scotland's premodern history and heritage.

OUT NOW! 📚 SSNS is proud to present its new edited volume, 'Common Ground in Scottish Archaeology' (ed. Kelly Kilpatrick), which honours the work of Dr Anna Ritchie, esteemed archaeologist, author, and lifelong advocate of Scotland's premodern history and heritage.

'University academic translates Norse saga to uncover Viking history of northern Scotland'! Find out more: www.nottingham.ac.uk/news/norse-s...

Why not become a member of SSNS? As well as providing access to events and publications (including our journal), you will support the Society to promote and fund research into the Scandinavian, Celtic, and Scottish worlds - both within Scotland and further afield www.ssns.org.uk/membership/

Our colleagues at the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland have launched a crowdfunder to publish a monograph which is set to have a significant impact on the study of Pictish kingship and society:

Some great news coming out of Caithness!

Coming soon...

Coming soon...

We’re celebrating 75 years of the Confederation of Scandinavian Societies today in beautiful York

THE PICTISH ARTS SOCIETY CONFERENCE!! Day 1, Metal and Metalwork Day 2, New research on Pictish Art and it’s Context Book below! facebook.com/events/s/pas...

Today's vikingism: the widely popular 'Immigrant Song', from Led Zeppelin's third studio album (III), released in late 1970. Its lyrics famously reference themes from Norse mythology and describe viking groups journeying overseas ('from the land of the ice and snow').

A paper from Rosemary Power on the founding of an early medieval Iona nunnery has been published in a collection of essays bit.ly/3VaJZcF Rosemary delivered a seminar on Iona's religious foundations for us last year - now availble to watch online here: youtu.be/9iLo_i8g0Ik

SSNS has now reopened its funding schemes, offering grants to eligible students and scholars at any stage in their career. Our grants support fieldwork and publications, events, and travel costs. Deadlines in Dec and Jan. For more details, see www.ssns.org.uk/funding/

The Society has today launched a new funding grant in honour of Dr Ryan Foster, supporting those who have come or returned to academia later in life.

Many thanks to everyone who has helped make this possible. Ryan is much missed, and I'm glad the Society is honouring his memory in a way befitting his own ethos of generosity and curiosity.

The Society has today launched a new funding grant in honour of Dr Ryan Foster, supporting those who have come or returned to academia later in life.

Join us online tomorrow from 7pm for 'How to Read a Hogback' - delivered by @rebekahbeatnik.bsky.social & Ancrum Heritage Society. Register here: bit.ly/HogbackAugustSeminar

Alongside my article on the 'Dane saga' of Breda in MLC, I wrote a little companion piece for the Royal Historical Society (@royalhistsoc.org) blog, introducing this capricious, clumsy, and charming work of premodern imagination. #medievalsky blog.royalhistsoc.org/2025/08/12/d...

Great to see this published by our committee member Chris (@ccooijmans.bsky.social) A Middle Dutch text with some conspicuously Scottish influences!

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

Thanks to everyone who came to our stall at @imc-leeds.bsky.social! We were giving away colourful copies of old editions of our journal ‘Northern Studies.’ You can access our back catalogue for free online! www.ssns.org.uk/our-journal/volumes

Congratulations to our winner @erinbenton.bsky.social! Enjoy your copy of Scandinavia Refracted!

Win a copy of Scandinavia Refracted! If you’re at @imc-leeds.bsky.social -take a photo, tag us and follow our account, and use the hashtag #northernstudies - we’ll invite the winner to collect their copy at 2pm!

We're getting set up in the Leeds Student Union for the @imc-leeds.bsky.social Historic Societies Fair - come down from 10:30am and grab some free copies of the Northern Studies journal!

SSNS recently supported the Aberdeen Medieval and Early Modern Conference through its Postgraduate/Early Career Conference scheme. A report on the conference (by @erinbenton.bsky.social) is now on our website. www.ssns.org.uk/featured/ssn...

Waking up out of my slumber on here, but not likely to do a heckuva lot of talking until I hit the road. Anyway, I'm organising a small but fun-packed conference in Orkney on Saturday (funded by @bssh.bsky.social & @northernstudies.bsky.social), and in it I'm discussing Åland in the Island Games.

The Society is saddened to learn of the death of its former President, Ian Fraser. As a dedicated committee member, Ian played a crucial role in the development of SSNS in its early years. Our thoughts are with his wife and family during this difficult time. (Ian is second on left in the photo)

Our event today with heads of selected UK #History societies is a reminder of the dedication, expertise, civic sense, dynamism and, yes, value of these subject societies. If you'd like to keep in touch with them, we've a Starter Pack bit.ly/4jKumCE which now lists 125 such groups #Skystorians 1/2

Having co-organised the online conference on the Pictish cross slab found at Conon Bridge a few years ago (with @northernstudies.bsky.social), it was brilliant to finally bump into the real deal in Dingwall Museum last week!

Standing out in a field at Strathpeffer (Ross, Highlands) is the Class I Pictish stone known as the ‘Eagle Stone’, featuring bird, horseshoe, and fuzzy-looking Potato.

The Tarbat Discovery Centre and Museum at Portmahomack is highly recommended. It has an excellent collection of local Pictish sculpture and lots of information on the first Pictish monastery to be excavated here in the 1990’s where vellum manufacturing for producing illuminated manuscripts was found

Ik heb niet vaak de kans om in het Nederlands over vikingen te praten, maar had er een mooi gesprek over voor de nieuwe Middeleeuwen podcast! 🎙️ Veel dank aan @timoepping.bsky.social! (I don't often get the chance to chat at length about vikings in Dutch, so had a great time recording this podcast)

We've received word that our online submission form for funding applications has not been working properly for some people. Should you have been unable to submit your application, please do send this to [email protected] instead!

Last call for the Great Viking Survey - final chance to weigh in at vikingsurvey.org before the survey closes later this month!

Returning to #IMC2025 Historical and Archaeological Societies Fair is Scottish Society for Northern Studies ☺️ Make sure to visit their stall in between exploring Making Leeds Medieval! 😁 www.ssns.org.uk www.facebook.com/NorthernStud... bsky.app/profile/nort... #MedievalSky #SkyStorians

The provisional conference schedule for Sport, "islands", people and politics, being held at the St Magnus Centre in Kirkwall, Orkney, Saturday, 28 June. Might have space for a few seats: please let me know. @bssh.bsky.social @northernstudies.bsky.social @morayhouse.bsky.social @insuhi.bsky.social

Around 1,100 years ago, the Norse settled the Brough of Birsay—a tidal island in Orkney—and it's still possible to make out the remnants of their houses, barns and even a sauna 🧖 Explore the structures and learn about archaeology through the ages with a tour: www.digitscotland.com/events/broug...

Don't miss the boat! Take part in the Great Viking Survey before it closes on 19 May. Quick to complete and wholly anonymous, find it at vikingsurvey.org!

With vol. 55 of our journal, Northern Studies, having been out for a little while, you can now read the previous volume (54) for free in Open Access! 🔓 www.ssns.org.uk/journal/nort...

Our Great Viking Survey is about to enter its final month! 📣 Spread the word so we can hear from as many people as possible before it closes! Don't miss the boat on this one, and show us the Viking Age through your eyes at vikingsurvey.org! 🕰️

Dropped by the Pictish symbol stone at Keillor (Angus) earlier this weekend. Standing on a small burial mound, it is a Class I stone with wolf, double disc/Z-rod, and mirror below. Heavily weathered and worn, but commands brilliant views across Strathmore to the Cairngorms.

We are happy to report that one of our SSNS seminars from earlier this year - by Prof. Dr Nelleke IJssennagger-van der Pluijm (Fryske Akademy) on 'Frisia and the Viking Age' - can now be rewatched on our YouTube channel!

This evening in place-name research I don't know what to do with, it turns out that 11 of Scotland's 72 medieval thanages (15%, a statistically significant number) were located at places with a word for 'confluence' in their name.

☠️| Did you know that books can be dangerous? We discovered a poisonous book today! During the 19th century, heavy metals such as arsenic and lead were sometimes added to book bindings to create the vivid green colours like in this copy of Moore's Irish Melodies (ECC E346). #PoisonBooks #booksky